Warner Bros. has announced that it is once again delaying the release of Christopher Nolan’s Tenet.
Originally slated for a July 17 release, Tenet held fast to that date as other films around it vacated to later slots. It eventually became the proverbial line in the sand as the first film slated for release following the onset of the pandemic.
On June 13, Warner Bros. finally moved Tenet from July 17 to July 31 and began an advertising campaign with that date. However, since that time, coronavirus cases have begun surging in multiple states and Tenet will now release on Aug. 12.
“Warner Bros. is committed to bringing Tenet to audiences in theaters, on the big screen, when exhibitors are ready and public health officials say it’s time,” a Warner Bros. spokesperson said in a statement. “In this moment what we need to be is flexible, and we are not treating this as a traditional movie release. We are choosing to open the movie mid-week to allow audiences to discover the film in their own time, and we plan to play longer, over an extended play period far beyond the norm, to develop a very different yet successful release strategy.”
With Tenet having moved back, and The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run now heading to VOD in 2021, that leaves Mulan as the sole film in July. It feels as though it’s inevitable at this point that the film will move out of the month in short order.
Now the question arises if even Aug. will be a workable month for films to release.
