If most of the country has operational movie theaters and audiences show up, Tenet’s domestic debut could still set a new Labor Day opening weekend record.
If most of the country has operational movie theaters and audiences show up, Tenet’s U. S. debut could break the Labor Day weekend record. Yesterday was supposed to be the opening day for Chris Nolan’s Tenet, well, the second opening day after Warner Bros. delayed the sci-fi actioner from its initial July 17 date. The John David Washington/Robert Pattinson thriller was then delayed to August 12 and will now open overseas in much of the world on August 26 before opening in “limited” American theatrical release over a long Thurs-Mon Labor Day weekend beginning September 3. Just how limited is a key question, and Tom Brueggemann over at Indiewire has argued that the film could play in essentially 80% of the country. If the 45 U. S. states allegedly permitted to run indoor theaters are able to play the movie, then the anticipated (and allegedly good) time inversion thriller could set a new record for Labor Day weekends entirely by default. There were 40 U. S. states operating indoor theaters in some capacity last weekend, and it’s presumed that the number will increase over the next month. No, that list doesn’t include California, New York, Arizona and New Jersey, key markets which may stay closed even as the rest of the country (for better or worse) reopens their theaters and theater chains. NYC, LA and San Francisco can sometimes represent 25% of the marketplace. Moreover, just because a state is allowed to operate theaters, that doesn’t mean that every potential movie theater in every permitted U. S., state will be running at maximum capacity.
