TENET (2020): Christopher Nolan “Thrilled” With Box Office Despite Industry Pessimism

Christopher Nolan “Thrilled” With Tenet’s Box Office Despite Industry Pessimism

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Christopher Nolan, the director of Tenet, said he was “thrilled” with the film’s box office in light of theater closures, despite the disappointment from industry insiders.

Media mavens have taken on a pessimistic outlook of the exhibition industry, partly as a result of Tenet‘s disappointing box office returns. But in his interview, Nolan defended his film’s performance, saying “I’m thrilled that it has made almost $350 million” but expressed his worries that “the studios are drawing the wrong conclusions from our release.” He added that “rather than looking at where the film has worked well and how that can provide them with much needed revenue, they’re looking at where it hasn’t lived up to pre-COVID expectations and will start using that as an excuse to make exhibition take all the losses from the pandemic instead of getting in the game and adapting — or rebuilding our business, in other words.”

Regardless of the pandemic, the film failed to meet studio expectations in the United States, doing little to assure executives that they would be able to take in enough revenue to cover their production and marketing expenses and loan interest. Studios often end up having to spend more on marketing than they do on the actual production and generally need to incur debt to finance their projects. As a result, in the wake of its premiere, studios pushed back nearly all of the major Hollywood productions set for 2020 into 2021 or later.

Nolan said he remains confident because “If you’re talking about the acceleration of existing trends, that’s something I started reading right at the beginning of the pandemic. And it ignores the reality that 2019 was the biggest year for theatrical films in history. They’d made the most money. The admissions were huge. So to me, it’s much more about: What’s the new reality we’re living in?”

Despite his optimism, studios are probably making the right choice by “[holding] big-budget films until there’s more clarity about audiences’ willingness to see a movie in theaters” says Variety’s Rebecca Rubin. Tenet was tremendously pricey to create and market, and “Rivals speculate that “Tenet” may lose as much as $100 million.”

Nolan concluded his interview, saying “Long term, moviegoing is a part of life, like restaurants and everything else. But right now, everybody has to adapt to a new reality.”

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