Tenet gets international release in August, US to follow in September

Warner Bros. is staggering its release of Christopher Nolan’s much anticipated spy-thriller “Tenet.”

The film, which has been delayed a number of times due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, will debut on Aug. 26 internationally before opening in select cities in the U.S. over the Labor Day weekend.

This is an unusual move for such a high-profile feature. Typically, studios look to release big blockbusters all in the same weekend to avoid spoilers or pirated copies entering the space before the film is made available to a large segment of the public.

However, the strategy will allow Warner Bros. and international theaters to ring up some ticket sales. Exhibitors in the U.S. that have opened during the pandemic have been forced to show library titles like “Star Wars” and “Jurassic Park.”

Internationally, some countries have been able to release new local titles to some success. 

“The ongoing pandemic has upended traditional theatrical release strategies and studios are now faced with instituting revised plans for their films in order to supply high-profile films to exhibitors and audiences around the world,” Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore, said. “While a staggered release strategy may carry its own challenges, the benefit of at least getting these films in front of an audience and giving theaters appealing content may outweigh any of the potential issues such as piracy, spoilers and that some countries may feel left out of the equation.”

For the last two months “Tenet” and Disney’s “Mulan” were expected to kick off the summer box office and signal hope to exhibitors that some semblance of normal could come to the movie theater industry.

However, a growing number of Covid-19 cases in the U.S. forced both studios to ping-pong their release dates later on the calendar. Eventually, both unset their films altogether.

A Labor Day weekend release for “Tenet” leaves “Antebellum” as the first big Hollywood movie to enter theaters since many were shuttered back in March. The Jordan Peele-produced horror film is expected to enter theaters on Aug. 21. Of course, movie calendar dates are hardly set in stone these days. 

Following that release is “New Mutants” on Aug 28. The film has found itself repositioned on the calendar multiple times over the last few years, so this, too, could be shuffled again.