Billed as the movie that would save theaters, Christopher Nolan’s end-of-summer puzzle box was supposed to bring American audiences flocking back to multiplexes. While about 70 percent of theaters were open in the U.S. in early September, the money-making markets of New York and Los Angeles remained closed, and Tenet made just $9.4 million in the U.S. over Labor Day weekend — a drop in the bucket of the $400-million-plus it needs to break even.
Worse still, Tenet’s poor domestic opening gave other studios the jitters. Warner Bros.’s Wonder Woman 1984 subsequently got bumped to Christmas; Universal delayed its highly-anticipated Candyman to 2021; Marvel’s Black Widow likewise fled for the greener pastures of next year. Plink, plink, plink go the rivets, with MGM’s No Time to Die, rescheduled from Nov. 20 to April 2021 on Friday, being the latest to plummet earthward.
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