- Tenet – £5,335,654 – NE
Took £2,044,248 from two days of previews 38.3% of the opening weekend (similar to Deadpool 2, Black Panther, Furious 8, The Shape of Water, Spider-Man: Far From Home and Doctor Strange).
2D took 87.93% with £2,891,504 from 619 cinemas (3,066 screens) with previews took £4,765,860. IMAX took 12.07% taking £382,007 from 48 cinemas including previews £642,024. (IMAX tickets are up to a third more than the regular price (BFI IMAX which had several sold-out reduced capacity screenings prices are £24.75/£26.75, 6 years ago Interstellar tickets were 40% less £18.40).
Sunday estimates were £5,317,884 with final box office only £17,770 more, normally Sunday estimates come in a lot lower than finals, which often happens with Disney films who seem to underestimate their box office, so they get a double hit of box office news on Sunday and Monday.
Had the 241st biggest opening in the UK between Alvin And The Chipmunks II and Fast Five (close to Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, Mission: Impossible III (took only £42,566 less than Interstellar), The Revenant and Ready Player One) and 347th biggest inflation inflated between Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation and How to Train Your Dragon 3 (close to Pearl Harbour, Oblivion, Wanted and Legend).
42nd biggest Warner Bros opening between The Hangover Part III and Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves (close to Inception, Gravity, Mad Max: Fury Road and Batman Begins) and 59th biggest inflation inflated between Happy Feet and The Bodyguard (close to Interstellar, The Matrix, Ready Player One and The Great Gatsby).
Tenet opened +423.51% Insomnia; +20.5% Batman Begins; +350% The Prestige; 52.3% less The Dark Knight; 9.76% less Inception; 62.8% less The Dark Knight Rises; 0.8% less Interstellar; 46.7% less Dunkirk.
Are now 76% (641) cinemas open in the UK out of 840 the remaining cinemas are independents that will be opening over the next few months thanks to BFI grants; Tenet played in 611 cinemas and 3,114 screens 68% of screens in the UK (4,564);
Tenet had the 2nd biggest opening of 2020 after 1917 opening in January without previews with £7,446,302 and ahead of Dolittle (£5,085,520) and is Warner Bros biggest opening since Joker last October (£12,555,328).
End of August releases rarely have big openings, only a handful of films have taken £2m+ over the weekend the last was 2015’s Straight Outta Compton (£2,498,231) with 2013’s One Direction: This Is Us (£3,471,872) and 2009’s The Final Destination (£3,633,395) having the biggest ever late August openings. The Final Destination didn’t have previews unlike Straight Outta Compton, One Direction: This Is Us and Tenet opening bigger than Tenet’s Fri-Sun £3,291,406.
Of the remaining films for the year only Wonder Woman 1984, No Time To Die, Black Widow and Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway is likely to open bigger than Tenet, but many will suggest their success is thanks to Christopher Nolan being allowing Tenet to be the canary in the coalmine to be the saviour of cinema ads statues will also be built outside exhibitors offices.Tenet is already the 13th biggest film of the year after 1917, Sonic the Hedgehog, Bad Boys For Life, Dolittle, Parasite, The Gentlemen, Birds of Prey, Jojo Rabbit, Emma, The Invisible Man, Onward and The Personal History Of David Copperfield and by next Sunday will become the 5th biggest film of the year. At the start of the year, many would expect Tenet to take upwards of £40m+ and be one of the 5 biggest films of the year but now unless it holds as well as Dunkirk will likely take half as much.
While Tenet played in more screens than probably any other film as it wasn’t playing in many independent cinemas it was still playing in less than 130 cinemas Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker opened with last December (740) which was one of the largest releases.
It’s a marathon not a sprint as Tenet probably opening to similar BO would have opened within normal circumstances over 3 days in 5 in July what will be key to its success is the US after mixed reviews and word of mouth as needs to play as strongly beyond Nolanites and cinephiles?
While cinephiles and Nolanites will think differently the aim of the filmmaker is for cinemagoers to understand the plot the first time they see a film, but Tenet is just too clever for its own good and will end up confusing many with polarised reactions from regular cinemagoers? Just think that cinemagoers should be able to watch an original film and be able to understand it without having to do research before or after watching it or have to watch it multiple times as most people will only see a film one in the cinema.
Seeing those comparisons with other Christopher Nolan films Tenet probably opened as big as it would have opened had it done so in July but over 3 days, not 5 and opening in half the number of screens as originally Tenet would have opened in the UK against Top Gun: Maverick, it release was delayed to July 17th because of the European Football Championships (Top Gun: Maverick will now open July 9th again delayed due to the delayed European Football Championships).
July wad to be crowded with Minions 2: The Rise Of Gru, Ghostbusters opening before Tenet and Morbius and Jungle Cruise opening two weeks after. Now Tenet has the marketplace to itself until Wonder Woman 1984 in a months’ time.
While the first film was a huge hit in the US it underperformed in the UK but that was probably due to the Manchester terrorist attack at Ariana Grande concert which saw it open with £6,179,616 and took £22,086,045 despite positive reviews and strong word of mouth. As the film’s premiere was cancelled so missing out on a lot of media coverage along with the One Love Manchester Concert on BBC1 the Sunday Wonder Woman opened which was watched young women who were the audience for Wonder Woman.
The audience who came out to see Tenet probably won’t return until Death on the Nile (opening October 23rd) and No Time To Die (November 12th).
But this does all depend on if there isn’t a second wave of Coronavirus which many expect to return in October.
After Warner Bros didn’t release any box office data until Sunday evening, there was some data released on Thursday that it took $8m from 32 territories with the UK and France leading the way, on Thursday took $7m worldwide and Friday $9m worldwide (total $26m WW) on Saturday took $12.5m ($37.5m total WW) and $11.2m Sunday ($54.5m WW).
All the predictable articles written in the hours after Tenet’s international opening was announced celebrated Christopher Nolan as ‘the saviour of cinema, but Tenet has a long way to go until before champagne corks are popping in Warner Bros offices. As after the last 6 months of free media coverage and Nolanites desperate to see the film it was always going to have a strong opening, especially as it had an extended 5-day opening and was playing on the vast majority of screens in most countries, and being the end of the school holidays with cold wet weather.
How Tenet holds over the next few weeks will show if it is the success the industry has already said it is and if Christopher Nolan is really the Messiah or if he is just a naughty boy. As after The King’s Man has been delayed until 2021 the next major release isn’t until Wonder Woman 1984 in four weeks’ time, but as the original film wasn’t as huge as success as the US, the majority of cinemagoers who will see Tenet won’t return to the cinema again until No Time To Die in November.
There is a need to put the opening of Tenet into perspective as last week BFI Chief Executive was on Newsnight and said: “Tenet is obviously the first time we’ve heard of a big piece of new popcorn cinema released, so all eyes on it, I think it’s the slightly unfair level of pressure to put on one film, to be honest, but it has somewhat positioned itself to be the saviour”… “cinemas had been losing £5.7m since lockdown, so clearly there’s been a huge urgency to get cinemas reopened and films back on screen, but Tenet is going to take an incredible amount of noise over the next few weeks, but it will take more than one film to get audiences back into cinemas, and there will be multiplex films for some audiences and some great independent films over the next few weeks including Rocks in September which we expected to be a big hit in the independent cinemas. So we think audiences will get back, but it’s going to take more than one film and one weekend to get audiences comfortable and back to where we were in March”.
So if cinemas have been losing £5.7m a day over the last 24 weeks Tenet opening with less than that over 5 days with all the media coverage it has received, positive reviews and hype along with being the film playing in 75% of the screens in the UK isn’t nearly as impressive as the media has made it out to be this is probably why Warner didn’t want to reveal box office and if they could have would have preferred not to release box office for Tenet as over it’s the opening weekend but they put the attention on the film being the canary in the coalmine so everyone wanted to know how it opened.
Box office analysts were quick to say Tenet opened with £5.3m with 20% of cinemas still closed, which are the independent cinemas who won’t be able to reopen until later this month and October as they needed grants from the BFI to fund their COVID safety measures so they will likely miss out on any box office from Tenet.
Tenet took an average of £1m a day since last Wednesday, Warner didn’t release daily box office figures (but unlike the US where they are freely available online UK daily box office information is rarely available freely online) so took about 17% of the daily regular box office as the other films on release probably only took about 0.1% between them. Over 5 days took 18.5% of the normal box office, that said the last weekend in August is the end of the school holidays is normally the week where studios dump films so is often one of the slowly weeks of the year.
Advance bookings of Tenet went on sale on August 12th the following day it was reported that sales were strong and that at Vue Cinemas they were 60% of tickets sold that day, 60% sounds a lot but when the daily box office was less than £50k less than 5% of the normal daily August sales of £1m+ sales were probably about £30k selling about 2,000 seats.
As of August 24th advance bookings in the UK was almost 11,000 tickets sold which was surprisingly more than 7,000 total presales for Dunkirk and 1,800 for Interstellar as both films sold strongly at the BFI IMAX. It is likely that more people will pre-book for Tenet and there will be fewer walk-in cinema purchases. With track and trace policies it was surprising that exhibitors didn’t opt for all tickets to be only available to buy online and have to register, but you can still buy tickets at the cinema and book online as a guest.
Males 45+ make up a large proportion of advance sales in the UK similar to Interstellar and the UK has attracted larger groups of people than the US or Australia (2.24 admissions per visit in the UK vs 1.56 for US and 1.95 for Australia), but looking online at ticket purchases as cinemas there seem to be many single ticket sales which do question the fact that many highlighted in a recent survey the reason why people wanted to go back to the cinemas was to socialise?
As with many other Christopher Nolan films Tenet was front heavy with Nolanites out in force to avoid spoilers on Wednesday but softer sales over the later part of the five-day opening.
Since then there were no more details of how to advance sales were going until last Friday when they said they were comparable to Rocketman or Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, this would see an opening of £5m+ over 5 days opening weekend. Others said they were similar to Inception and expecting it to close to pre-lockdown levels. Nor having access to the data they have at their fingertips and only being able to do a manual check online at several cinemas it doesn’t look like that to me.
Film Stories reported on Wednesday that Warner wouldn’t be reporting limited UK box office for Tenet’s opening weekend, but UK BO data is already restricted as while can get daily BO freely available online the UK is rarely released Warner put themselves in this position by deciding to open Tenet in August there should be more extensive data released not less.
But can understand why Warner would want to limit the box office data as everyone thinks they are a box office experts, but the industry doesn’t help itself as it’s always hyping up films openings but doesn’t put them into any historical context.
As every film should be enough bigger as despite what industry claims most cinema prices are still steadily increasing, apart from Vue. (would be interesting to see if Vue reducing prices has boosted concession sales, but with reduced prices will studios want to book their films on their cinemas, the £6.99 rate is still probably more than the percentage exhibitors get from subscription cinema sales as that is negotiated per ticket with the studio similar to the rental fee and it gets more for the exhibitors the longer the film plays.
Exhibitors were saying Tenet was selling strongly similar to Rocketman, Inception and Once Upon a Time In Hollywood £7m+ over 5-day opening? Warner was quick to reveal Tenet first day sales were 60% of daily sales at Vue but didn’t release any more information since.
Odeon announced they had over 10,000 screens of Tenet over its opening weekend, with Tenet playing in 620 regular cinemas and 3,114 screens almost 75% of the screens in the UK Tenet must o had over 50,000 screenings over 5 days, with an average 100 seats per screen that would be over 5m seats available and using the industry average of £7.08 that would be a potential box office over 5 days of over £35m gives Tenet about 15% capacity. While Vue cinemas have reduced their prices to £6.99 the vast majority of cinemas are over £10 that would bring it down to sell about 10% of available seats.
Warner put this scrutiny of BO data on themselves deciding to make Tenet the canary in the coalmine and selling it to the media as ‘the film that saves cinema’ from the saviour of cinema Christopher Nolan. now the media wants to know has he saved cinema, or will more films go to VOD?
Vue West End has reduced its ticket prices for Tenet to £6.99 almost 60% less than Cineworld Leicester Square 2D (also screened in Laser IMAX and 4DX) and 73% less than Odeon Leicester Square (presented in 70mm) which has seen both cinemas also reduce their prices so no more £40+ OLSQ tickets?
Checking last Friday opening day Wednesday Vue Westfield Shepherds Bush 29 shows 350 tickets sold while my local Vue Harrow 22 shows 12 tickets sold; both cinemas cinemagoers will be able to social distance by many having their own screenings as have 175+ screenings of Tenet over 5 days.
After all the media coverage surrounding Tenet with front-page headlines “will Tenet save cinema” last Friday in the Guardian and Independent it was then predictable they would be eager to find out how sales were going. On Wednesday, the Guardian reported sales for Tenet at the Showcase Bristol was soft, this article caused outrage from other exhibitors who said their sales were much stronger.
With no official box office figures, media did its own research checking out individual cinemas in different parts of the country, to quote the film The American President “People want leadership, Mr. President, and in the absence of genuine leadership, they’ll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone.” Warner needed to release more daily BO data rather than less so could keep control of the message, which they were ahead of the release of Tenet.
On opening day (Wednesday) there were 4 people In the first screening at 10am at the Cineworld Leicester Square (80 seaters) and 61 in the first screening at the Odeon Leicester Square (800 seaters), for the first IMAX screening at Cineworld Leicester Square there were 100 tickets sold, the cinemas had 30 screenings over the day in 6 screens.
ticket sales increased in those cinemas and the BFI IMAX throughout the day with two screenings at the 498-seater (reduced capacity) BFI IMAX sold out (tickets £24.75/£26.75).
Early sales were also soft for the Odeon Holloway Road that was recently renovated it had13 screenings of Tenet on August 25th and the first screenings had few people in them.
Previews in France were also softer than expected with the Grand Rex Theatre in Paris no selling out despite reduced capacity, the Rex like the Odeon Leicester Square are cinemas that you would expect to have multiple screenings throughout its opening weekend to be sold out.
Before lockdown Tenet was expected to be one of the biggest films of the year opening with £8m+ over 5 days and take £40m+ similar to Inception; Tenet was expected to perform strongly in the UK as all other Christopher Nolan films have done and
Exhibitors have a crazy number of screenings with many cinemas having close to 30 each day and over 5 day opening weekend closer to 200 screenings and up to 20,000 seats available,
Also up to Friday BFI IMAX had sold out only one screening of Tenet on it’s opening night August 26th with its reduced capacity of about 350 down from its normal 498 capacity (tickets are £23.75 and it’s showing in 70mm/IMAX) despite Nolanites flocking to book seats at BFI IMAX as they have always done, in 2012 The Dark Knight Rises took over £1 million in advance bookings at BFI IMAX in 5 weeks before opening selling 62,300 sales (£16 average today tickets for Tenet are £24.75).
This beat the previous advance sales record at the BFI IMAX by James Cameron’s Avatar in December 2009 sold 47,000 tickets, grossing £607,000 (£12.90 average).
Forty-three shows ahead of opening were sold out for The Dark Knight Rises including early morning screenings at 04.25 and 04.55; the film broke BFI IMAX records for highest first-day sales (24,754 tickets taking £409,838) and the highest first-week sales (38,658 tickets, taking £634,013) breaking the records previously set earlier in 2012 by Ridley Scott’s Prometheus.
The 9 Christopher Nolan films have taken over £240m at the UK box office (over £280m inflation inflated).
After a new TV spot featuring a five-star review from Total Film and a review quote from Empire Magazine was expecting the film to receive many more five-star reviews when the embargo ended last Friday, but there were only a couple and Empire Magazine who has given every Christopher Nolan film five-star review gave Tenet 4 stars.
A few years ago was talk of Christopher Nolan directing a James Bond film with Tom Hardy replacing Daniel Craig and with Warner Bros releasing the film, from reviews sounds like his taken all the elements from Bond film and Nolanized them to make Tenet which of course Nolanites will adore but others will wait for the real thing in November.
Many reviews said it’s a film for Nolan fans which could alienate some as while his films are visually stunning they are emotionless and pretentious, Nolan previously said “I try not to be obvious about it. That gives people a little more freedom to interpret the movies their way, bring what they want to it. I’ve had people write about my films as being emotionless, yet I have screened those same movies and people have been in floods of tears at the end. It’s an impossible contradiction for a filmmaker to resolve. In truth, it’s one of the things that is really exciting about filmmaking though. I seem to be making films that serve as Rorschach tests.”
Ahead of Tenet’s release was expecting it to be as so many films are a three-star film given a five-star film due to the hype and expectations around it as so many times especially with critics see as “British” they get caught up in the hype, this often happens when the embargo ends immediately after the screening.
With Tenet embargo was several days after the screening which allowed critics to mull over the film and why you go alongside five-star reviews in Total Film and The Telegraph also got a very surprising two-star review from The Guardian “Lucky, really, because Tenet is not a movie it’s worth the nervous braving a trip to the big screen to see, no matter how safe it is. I’m not even sure that, in five years’ time, it’d be worth staying up to catch on the telly. To say so is sad, perhaps heretical. But for audiences to abandon their living rooms in the long term, the first carrot had better not leave a bad taste.”
The problem with Christopher Nolan films is they are often style over substance and while previous Nolan films this was possible as they were based on comic-books, historical events or had big star name actors Leonardo DiCaprio or strong ensemble casts, Tenet is all about Christopher Nolan. While Nolanites and cinephiles will love that it is, any many comments have been that Tenet is for Nolan fans the question will be how it plays to a wider audience and if that wider audience is willing to go to the cinema.
Last Saturday, several front pages of British newspapers asked “is Tenet the film that will save cinema” few films receive the media coverage Tenet has received in the media and on social media over the last 6 months. This propaganda is madness as this just plays to Christopher Nolan’s delusions of grandeur that he is the saviour of cinema to his disciples, but his, not the messiah and Tenet isn’t the second coming.
Warner Bros have done their job with Tenet, they have marketed the sh*t out of it, now it’s all down to exhibitors to show that cinemas are safe as they were so desperate for the film to open in the summer so it’s now up to them to show that Warner Bros made the right decision to stand by them.
In 2010 Inception opened internationally along with the US on July 16th in 7 other territories taking $15.6m with the UK leading the way taking 55% of the box office ($8.6m).
In 2014 Interstellar opened with $82.9m from 62 territories (UK $9.05m 11% of opening) and $132.6m worldwide (opened in China the week after); Interstellar opened in the US with $52.2m from 5 days opened early in 250 screens in IMAX and 70mm taking $13.4m (25%) from IMAX and large format screens; male (52%) and 75% over 25.
In 2017 Dunkirk opened with $55.4m from 46 territories and $105m worldwide; the UK was its biggest international territory taking $12.4m (22.4%) with IMAX taking 14% of its box office with the BFI IMAX the top IMAX cinema in the U, which is normally is and is the spiritual home for Nolanites.
Christopher Nolan wants to be the saviour of cinema, but the way Tenet is being released globally is the worst possible opening in Australia and South Korea from August 21st, Sweden and France seeing from August 24th and then 60+ territories from August 26th and then selected states in the US (not New York and Los Angeles but incredibly Florida) and China from September 3rd.
The other major issue is piracy as the film opens in many Asian countries ahead of the US on August 26th and the majority of piracy is now generated there and there were illegal streams online from last Saturday, the quality wasn’t great but it was still watchable to those people who don’t feel comfortable going to the cinema at the moment. The same will happen with Mulan from Friday when it premieres on PVOD on Disney+.
Morning Consult recently ran a survey and the results were as they have been for the last few months 74% of U.S. adults said they are unlikely to go to a movie theatre in the next month and 54% said that studios should hold off on new releases until sometime in 2021. A similar poll on Monday gave similar results with only 28% comfortable going back to the cinema now.
All the research since April has said it will take months for the majority to return to the cinema with only 18% willing to go back immediately..
16% said they only want to see Tenet” in cinemas; 54%, said would prefer to see in theatres but are also ok to see it at home. While No Time to Die and Top Gun: Maverick would prefer to see in cinemas but that is probably because by November most hope the pandemic will be over and things will go back to normal and people will be going back to the cinema as they did before lockdown.
In June Kenneth Branagh said in an interview ‘when cinema reopens after shutdown must be risk-free in terms of personal health’ but in interviews in last week didn’t mention it.
A similar survey last week by Atom Tickets said 40% are ready to return to the cinema immediately, but those 16,000 surveyed were movie fans while the 2,000+ asked by Morning Consult were a much wider mix of people.
On Tuesday Tom Cruise posted a video online of him attending a preview screening of Tenet at the BFI IMAX on Monday on the way out of the cinema he was asked by another cinemagoer what he thought, and he said “I loved it” Tom Cruise is currently filming Mission Impossible 7 and 8 at Warner Bros Studios Leavesden.
While most cinemas have a two-seat gap each side BFI IMAX only has one seat and has other cinemagoers sitting immediately in front and behind, while exhibitors will say this is to government guidelines, it is the minimum required, in an auditorium of up to 300 people the distance between others should be more than the minimum especially as they will be seated for almost 3 hours watching Tenet while they are able to eat and drink as normal. Cinemagoers will nervously react to every cough and sneeze.
Cinemagoers at Alamo Drafthouse cinemas have to sign a disclaimer similar to the one Disney World have ““By visiting this cinema, you voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19.” As people don’t read terms and conditions and just click yes when they sign up to services online could exhibitors of hidden similar disclaimer on the back of cinema tickets?
In April AMC Adam Aron said the chain was “pricing out temperature-reading machines.” While exhibitors will check staff temperatures daily they won’t check the temperatures of customers> It’s crazy that I had my temperature checked before I went into the hairdressers also wearing a mask, but people can go into a cinema mixing with complete strangers for up to 3 hours without temperature checks. This does put cinema staff at risk as staff in restaurants having to interact very closely with people that could be infected or asymptomatic having no symptoms themselves but being able to infect others.
Exhibitors made a big deal about their enhanced safety measures but the majority of which should have been standard before Coronavirus. One of the things they have made a big deal about is their enhanced cleaning, but in Odeon cinemas in Scotland, they have been cutting back from the daily cleaning by professional cleaners to three times a week with cinema staff forced to take up the slack to be done with their other duties. The cinema staff weren’t given any training, this is similar to when Odeon and Cineworld cinemas reopened many went to social media to say they weren’t given any additional training for the extra duties they were given.
While exhibitors say there is a 1m gap between rows and that is what governments demand the difference is that your in that seat for up to 3 hours while in a pub, café or restaurant you can move around and there is likely to be a source of fresh air, while in a cinema you’re depended on if the air conditioning filter is up to standard and regularly maintained. The AMC advert showing their safety measures says cinemas have MERV-13 filters, but in small writing it says were possible, customers should be able to know which cinemas have the filters installed so they can make the choice themselves if they want to take the risk going to a cinema without a filter that removes COVID from the air.
In a recent interview with Variety Adam Aron predictably said AMC’s new safety and cleaning procedures will be expensive and that the costs will be “passed on to the consumers.” Which will be either higher ticket prices or concessions in similar way ticket prices previously increased with the conversion from film to digital and the recent unnecessary installation of recliners.
We will only know in 2+ weeks’ time if the UK is really fine as surely as within the 700k+ cinemagoers who saw Tenet over the last 5 days will be some who have COVID and others who are asymptomatic? If there was a breakout in a cinema could exhibitors really trace all attendees?
Seth Rogen said in an interview on the same day Warner Bros announced they were delaying the release of Tenet for the third time “I’m waiting to see what Chris Nolan does,”… ” ‘WWCND’ is basically what we’re saying at all times. ‘What would Chris Nolan do?’ For a while, it seemed like the answer was to kill his greatest fans. But that’s not the answer of today, it seems, so that’s good. But we have no idea. We don’t want to be the first to rush into anything.”
In April one of the suggestions was all tickets would need to purchase online but while some cinema chains like Curzon have said that all tickets must be purchased online the major chains still allow you to buy at the cinema.
It’s understandable that reopening movie theatres is far down on the list of priorities for Cuomo as while cinema seems huge to those that work within in and go to the cinema it is still only a small cog in the US economy, last year Movie Theatres added about 10% ($11.3bn BO and similar amount concessions) to the $21.44 trillion US economy and while the risk might be similar to hospitality but is worth over 3000% more ($660bn) than cinema employing far more people.
A similar survey a few days later by Atom Tickets said 40% are ready to return to the cinema immediately, but those 16,000 surveyed were movie fans while the 2,000+ asked by Morning Consult were a much wider mix of people.
Last week Warner Bros held DC Fandome a virtual convention (similar to Disney’s D23 Expo) this included trailers, gameplay footage and announcements of upcoming DC projects, this included the second trailer for Wonder Woman 1984 and the first trailer for The Batman (both films don’t have dates on the end of the trailers), James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, Black Adam and the first trailer of Zack Snyder’s Justice League which will premiere in the US on HBO Max but probably have a cinema release in the UK as American Pickle that also premiered on HBO Max earlier this month but was given a theatrical release in the UK.(opened with £27,732 taking £82,856 to date).
It was great to see the new trailers for Wonder Woman 1984 and The Batman but we saw them on our phones and tablets rather than first in the cinema, it would be interesting to see if people’s reactions to films differ from those who saw trailers on phones or in the cinema first?
With $200m+ budget Tenet will need to take $500m+ worldwide to turn a profit; Dunkirk took $520m WW; Interstellar $654m WW: The Dark Knight Rises $1.08bn WW; Inception $834m WW; The Dark Knight $1bn WW: Batman Begins $359m WW; Insomnia $114m WW.
Christopher Nolan films are big in China with Interstellar taking $122m and Inception $69m; The Dark Knight Rises $53m; Dunkirk $50m; Tenet is expected to open this week with about $45m
Christopher Nolan films have taken almost £250m in the UK (almost £290m inflation inflated) $2.6bn in the US and $6.35bn worldwide since Memento in 2000.
One film can’t save cinema, and similar to Disney’s dominance of BO last year calling Christopher Nolan out as the Messiah does more damage as the majority of cinemagoers for Tenet won’t be returning again until No Time To Die in November.
Tenet is the latest Christopher Nolan film to receive complaints about its sound mixing which makes much of the dialogue hard to understand, many had issues with Bane’s dialogue in The Dark Knight Rises and the overpowering score of Interstellar and loud explosions in Dunkirk making dialogue hard to hear. With a film like Tenet where dialogue is vital to understand the confusing plot but as Forbes critic Scott Mendelson wrote “I don’t know what Chris Nolan has against dialogue,”
Cinema is a visual medium but Tenet has lots of exposition cinemagoers need to hear if they are to try to understand what is going on, maybe this is all part of Nolan’s plan to make people go multiple times to see his films in cinemas so they can understand what’s going on. While Tenet has been sold on the cinema experience by Christopher Nolan people might be able to understand the plot better watching it at home on DVD with subtitles.
After complaints about the sound mix on Interstellar in 2014 Nolan said ““There are particular moments in [“Interstellar”] where I decided to use dialogue as a sound effect, so sometimes it’s mixed slightly underneath the other sound effects or in the other sound effects to emphasize how loud the surrounding noise is,” Nolan said in 2014 in response to the “Interstellar” sound complaints, proving to his fans that the divisive sound mix was purposeful and not some audio mistake”.. “I don’t agree with the idea that you can only achieve clarity through dialogue,”… “Clarity of story, clarity of emotions — I try to achieve that in a very layered way using all the different things at my disposal — picture and sound. I’ve always loved films that approach sound in an impressionistic way and that is an unusual approach for a mainstream blockbuster, but I feel it’s the right approach for this experiential film.”
Nolan also said in a 2017 interview “We made the decision a couple of films ago that we weren’t going to mix films for substandard theatres,”… “We’re mixing for well-aligned, great theatres.”… “At a certain point, you have to decide if you’ve made the best possible version of the film and you’re trying to account for inadequacies in presentation,”.. . “That’s chasing the tail. It doesn’t work. I will say, with our sound mixes, we spent a lot of time and attention making sure that they work in as predictable a way possible.”… “It’s important to complain if you don’t like something you hear because theatre owners need to step up.”
- Onward – £185,028 – £6,657,744
Up 30.2% in the 11th week of its cinema release 26 weeks after opening in cinemas in March is still managing to attract cinemagoers; it took 79% of its total box office after 2 weeks on release due to lockdown; (normally for a Pixar film it’s about 40%)
Onward has taken £1,381,391 over the last 9 weeks since cinemas reopened on July 4th despite being available on digital download since May and on video since June; Trolls World Tour also managed to take £655,604 over the same period again despite being available to buy cheaper on DVD than going to the cinema showing again that exhibitors shouldn’t care about VOD if people want to go to the cinema to see a film they will still go even if there is a pandemic.
Onward is the 933rd biggest film in the UK between Last Vegas and Twins (close to Storks, Ice Age: Collision Course, The Borrowers and Freaky Friday) and 1,146th biggest inflation inflated film between Maze Runner: The Death Cure and The Dukes of Hazzard (close to Men In Black International, Spies In Disguise, Cowboys & Aliens and Happy Feet 2).
Onward is currently the 11th biggest film of 2020 between The Invisible Man and The Personal History Of David Copperfield and will likely be Disney’s third-biggest film of 2020 with their next film (not including 20th Century Fox films) with Black Widow and Soul both still set to be released in November.
Even if Black Widow and Soul took £100m combined Disney would be down about 80% from their record-breaking year last year taking £464.5m having moved Artemis Fowl, Mulan, The One and Only Ivan all to Disney+, had they been released theatrically they would have probably taken about £80m so their box office for this year would still have been less than 50% of last year.
Disney’s slate for next year is also softer than rival studios so after being the #1 studio in the UK for the last few years probably won’t be this year and next as rival studios have delayed many of this year’s tentpoles to 2021. After last year was a record-breaking year for Disney this year even before the lockdown was going to be all about Disney+ and lockdown probably helped Disney as it allowed them to move films like Artemis Fowl and The One and Only Ivan to Disney+ which would have probably underwhelmed if they were released in cinemas.
146th biggest animation film in the UK between ParaNorman and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (close to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Spies In Disguise, The Angry Birds Movie 2 and Wonder Park).
Onward is Disney’s second-lowest grossing animated film just ahead of 2001’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire £5.9m and £9.83m inflation inflated).
Onward as most of February and March releases will have a star beside its total box office as it took £5.29m before cinema lockdown opening two weeks before impacted on it is box office. With the Easter holidays two weeks later Onward should have gone on to take more than double its box office even with the competition from Peter Rabbit 2 and Trolls World Tour.
23 Pixar films have taken over £690m at the box office since Toy Story in 1996 and over £890m inflation inflated.
Disney is due to release their 24th Pixar film Soul on November 27th (are rumours Disney might release it also to Disney+ depending on how Tenet has done in cinemas and Mulan on PVOD) with Luca set for release in 2021, two untitled in 2022 and one untitled In 2023.
- 100% Wolf – £140,050 – £498,737
Up 32.7% in its fifth weekend after adding more screens from last weekend as even more cinemas opened over the weekend.
While Warner Bros and Christopher Nolan have been seen as the saviours of cinema it’s independent distributors including Vertigo Releasing and Signature Entertainment that took the bigger gamble opening films including 100% Wolf and Dreambuilders without the massive marketing campaigns opening them in cinemas within a week of cinemas reopening.
In normal circumstances 100% Wolf, Dreambuilders and Pinocchio would barely get into the top 1 for a week but both have been in the top 10 for the last 5 weeks for 100% Wolf and 7 weeks for Dreambuilders. With school holidays now over these two films will be limited to weekend matinees but with no new films for children until Connected opening in 6 weeks’ time, they will probably still attract a limited audience till then.
- Unhinged – £112,465 – £1,214,564
Down 37.1% in its fifth weekend;
83% of UK cinemas have now reopened 800 of 959 cinemas, which includes all of the cinemas from the major exhibitors, but most independent cinemas are unlikely to be reopened until at least October.
UK cinemas have now been open for 9 weeks with box office up 3193.2% from £189,000 to £6,224,288 but with 1,426% more screens open than the first weekend (from 42 cinemas+ drive-ins (460 screens) to 641 cinemas+ drive-ins (3,856 screens up 738.3%) last weekend) (Tenet took 85.7% of the weekend’s box office, last year #1 Once Upon A Time In Hollywood 24.5%).
Week 1 £189,000 from 460 screens (42 cinemas)
Week 2; Up 76.2% £333,002 from 1,059 screens (122 cinemas 85 from the UK the rest from Ireland and drive-ins) up 130.2%; The Empire Strikes Back (40th Anniversary opening with £50,406 from 1012 screens)
Week 3: Down 7.5% £308,154 from 1,286 screens up 21.4%
Week 4: Up 30.7% £402,752 From 1,734 screens Up 34.8%
Week 5: Up 61.8% £651,914 from 3,016 screens (326 cinemas reopened) up 74%; Unhinged opened with £175,263 from 243 screens)
Week 6: Down 17.4% £538,716 from 3,393 screens up 12.5%: American Pickle opened with £27,732 from 162 screens
Week 7: Up 85.2% £997,837 from 3,200 screens approx.: Inception: 10th Anniversary opened £207,675 from 313 screens
Week 8: Up 10.9% £1,107,153 from 3,889 screens (503 cinemas) up 21.5%
Week 9: Up 462.2% £6,224,288 from 3, 856 (641 cinemas); Tenet opened with 85.7% (£5,335,654)
This time last year UK box office was over xx more taking £9,636,299; Top three 56.7% (£4,255,931) of the top 10 ((£7,501,394); Once Upon A Time In Hollywood 24.5% (£1,841,873); The Lion King 16.3% (£1,226,964); Angel Has Fallen 15.8% (£1,187,094); 16 films opened taking (£1,135,694); The Informer 26.5% (£301,424); remaining 15 films shared 74.5% (£834,270);
Who is the more foolish, the fool or the fool who follows him? As surely more incompetent to be reliant on an incompetent government to make a decision rather than make a decision themselves, while it was completely understandable exhibitors wanted to reopen cinemas as soon as possible.
It was important to get cinemagoers supporting that decision, while cinephiles were desperate to return asap the majority have been much slower to return and reopening cinemas too soon was always likely to spook others as they could see the situation with cases not dropping down as fast as other countries that reopened cinemas.
Unhinged has similarities to Steven Spielberg’s Duel; Joel Schumacher’s Falling Down; Roger Michell’s Changing Lanes (took £2,823,244); John Dah’s Joy Ride (aka Roadkill internationally) written by J. J. Abrams (took £2,215,996).
More recently Russell Crowe starred in HBO drama The Loudest Voice and 2016’s critical acclaim The Nice Guys which failed to find an audience; (took £3,792,002) which was a sorta sequel to Shane Black’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, also received positive reviews but failed to find an audience in cinemas.
- Pinocchio – £94,821 – £324,179
Down 4.5% in its fourth weekend
Since cinemas reopened on July 4th Vertigo Releasing have released 9 films and 100% Wolf, The Vigil and Pinocchio all entered the top 10, last year Vertigo had two films in the top 10 Child’s Play (opened with £247,573 in June) and Five Feet Apart (opened with £253,341 in March).
Matteo Girona’s Pinocchio received positive reviews but as with all previous versions even the Disney animated film it has a dark edge to the children’s story (even the Disney animated film), the scene where the naughty children turn into donkeys still scares me as it did when I was much younger.
There have been many versions of Pinocchio made over the years alongside the classic 1940s animated classic and there are two more film versions upcoming a darker animated film produced by Guillermo del Toro and a reimagination of the Disney animated film with Tom Hanks in talks to star as Geppetto with Robert Zemeckis directing.
Also opened
- The New Mutants – Disney/Fox
Took £220,071 from previews on Sat/Sun in 507 screens before the official opening on Friday; The New Mutants would have opened #2 over the weekend, it also had previews on Monday
The 16 X-Men films have taken almost £270m at the UK box office over the last 20 years (over £320m inflation inflated); the biggest opening of an X-Men film was 2016’s Deadpool (£13,729,803) and its lowest-grossing was 2005’s Elektra (£791,914) but The New Mutants could open lower.
The 17th and last 20th Century Fox Marvel film based in the X-Men Universe. The release of The New Mutants feels like the end of the era of 20th Century Films as the film was meant to be the start of a new generation of X-Men films and the first of a trilogy but instead it will be the final film before they are rebooted into the Marvel Universe in the coming years.
In 2000 20th Century Fox took a massive gamble making X-Men as at the time comic-book films were poorly received both at the box office and critically with films like Batman and Robin and Barb Wire.
The studio had little faith in the film bringing its release forward 6 months from December to July to fill a gap in their schedule, but it’s success launched a new generation of comic-book films and saw Sony finally make Spider-Man two years later that had been in development for many years.
The success of both X-Men and Spider-Man allowed Marvel to take the risk and self-finance a series of films that Paramount Pictures would release, and their success saw Disney acquire Marvel for $4bn in 2009.
Wonder in a parallel universe where Fox wasn’t sold to Disney would Dark Phoenix and The New Mutants turned out differently as both were changed dramatically in post due to other films Captain Marvel forced Dark Phoenix to change and after its success, New Mutants became a horror?
As had Dark Phoenix and The New Mutants opened when originally were dated they wouldn’t have been hacked up as much by studios trying to turn both into different films than were intended to be as both were originally developed as multiple films? As Dark Pheonix ending was changed due to the original ending being too similar to Captain Marvel and The New Mutants was turned into a horror film after the success if It Chapter One.
Both films were originally planed as multiple films and as seen what happened with Justice league when a two-part film is squeezed into one it leaves the film having many holes why there has been so much interest in the four Snyder cut that will be shown on HBO Max next year and probably in cinemas in the UK.
- Break The Silence: The Movie (Concert) – Trafalgar Releasing
Took £39,085 from 214 screens total £682,541 opened in 8th
The fourth musical documentary about South Korean boy band BTS, tickets went on sale on August 13th the same day the trailer was released.
Love Yourself In Seoul – BTS World Tour 2019 #10 opened on January 26th taking £518,810 from 291 screens
Burn the Stage: The Movie #6 opened 17th November 2018 taking £644,308 from 212 screens
- Hope Gap – Curzon
Opened with £72,769 from 38 screens
The film was released in cinemas and on Curzon Home Cinema
Hope Gap received its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival last September and UK premiere at the London Film Festival last October and received mixed reviews but said Annette Bening and Bill Nighy performances make the film worth seeing.
The film was released in cinemas in the US two weeks before lockdown taking $104,732
Hope Gap is William Nicholson’s first film he has directed since 1997’s Firelight best known for writing screenplays to Shadowlands, Les Misérables, Gladiator, Unbroken and most recently 2017’s Breathe.
UK box office in detail
This weekend’s top 10 box office took £6,099,807 up 593.5% from last weekend (£879,529)
The weekend admissions 856,536 up 592.4% from last week (123,703)
The latest estimate for 2020 box office is £605m which is less than half of last year’s £1.227bn
Gower Street Analytics predicted next year’s box office could be down up to 30% on last year levels but I believe had UK exhibitors done what Chinese exhibitor has done bringing in far stricter safety measures at the start and delayed the reopening of cinemas till early August with the right product admission levels could be up from last year. As 2021 has many of the big films that were delayed this year Minions: The Rise of Gru, Marvel’s The Eternals, Top Gun: Maverick and Fast & Furious 9 along with many major films that were already dated for 2021.
Top 3 took £5,660,732 92.8% of £6,099,807; Tenet 87.5% (£5,335,654); Onward 3.1% (£185,028); 100% Wolf 2.3% (£140,050)
Down 18.7% 2019 (£7,501,394); Top three 56.7% (£4,255,931) of the top 10; Once Upon A Time In Hollywood 24.5% (£1,841,873); The Lion King 16.3% (£1,226,964); Angel Has Fallen 15.8% (£1,187,094); 16 films opened taking (£1,135,694); The Informer 26.5% (£301,424); remaining 15 films shared 74.5% (£834,270);
Down 22.5% from 2018: (£7,876,859); Searching (£765,050); The Happytime Murders (£694,044); Yardie (£438,088); Cold War (£228,780); Upgrade (£58,006); Action Point (£33,993); #1 Disney’s Christopher Robin £1,173,235 3rd week 646 screens (14.9% of top 10)
Down 1.5% from 2017: (£6,193,484); The Limehouse Golem (£371,412); God’s Own Country (£167,824); Patti Cake$ (£121,446); Inhumans (£80,176); #1 American Made £968,068 2nd week 556 screens 9% drop (15.6% of the top 10)
Down 32.5% from 2016: (£9,034,593); Bad Moms (£1,471,466); War Dogs (£1,005,133); The Purge: Election Year (£807,803); Mechanic: Resurrection (£508,715); Julieta (£356,191); Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (£31,128); #1 Finding Dory £1,510,744 5th eek (3rd #1) 611 screens down 48% (16.7% of the top 10)
Down 28.9% from 2015; (£8,579,970); Straight Outta Compton (£2,498,231); Hitman: Agent 47 (£961,411); 45 Years (£331,196); We Are Your Friends (£260,715); #1 Straight Outta Compton £2,498,231 1st week 429 screens (29.1% of top 10)
Down 32.9% from 2014: (£9,093,638); Let’s Be Cops (£1,650,912); Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (expansion) (£1,077,370); If I Stay (£505,704); As Above, So Below (£398,787); Million Dollar Arm (£150,050); Obvious Child (£42,022); The Grand Seduction (£41,322); #1 Lucy £1,972,039 2nd week 504 screens (21.7% of top 10)
Down 38.2% from 2013: (£9,874,123); One Direction: This Is Us (£3,471,872); Pain & Gain (£1,016,136); The Way, Way Back (£532,487); You’re Next (£523,549); Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain (£36,882); #1 One Direction: This Is Us £3,471,872 1st week 476 screens (35.1% of top 10)
Down 43.6% from 2012 (£10,812,241); Total Recall (£2,493,230); The Watch (£2,235,933); The Possession (£979,192); A Few Best Men (£263,770); Thomas & Friends: Blue Mountain Mystery (£108,503); Berberian Sound Studio (£45,516); Cockneys vs. Zombies (£11,474); Rec 3 (£1,263); #1 Total Recall £2,493,230 1st week 464 screens (23.1% of top 10)
Down 42.1% from 2011 (£10,537,155); Fright Night (£680,543); Apollo 18 (£490,746); Kill List (£87,970); The Art of Getting By (£75,634); #1 The Inbetweeners Movie £3,679,555 3rd week 471 screens 35% drop (34.9% of top 10)
Down 43.8% from 2010: (£10,857,796); Grown Ups (£2,006,945); Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (£1,604,545); Diary of a Wimpy Kid (£671,161); The Girl who Played with Fire (£404,896); #1 Grown Ups £2,006,945 1st week 401 screens (18.5% of top 10)
Down 33.5% from 2009; (£9,177,873); The Final Destination (£3,633,395); Funny People (£1,001,152); The Hurt Locker (£308,887); Broken Embraces (£296,048); Mesrine: Public Enemy No.1 (£57,978); The Final Destination £3,633,395 1st week 427 screens (39.6% of top 10)
Down 30.9% from 2008; (£8,832,337); Step Brothers (£1,681,492); The Strangers (£1,250,624); Babylon A.D. (£536,968); The Wackness (£80,581); #1 Step Brothers £1,681,492 1st week 362 screens (19.1% of top 10)
Down 21.1% from 2007: (£7,728,093); 1408 (£1,073,963); No Reservations (£512,657); Death Sentence (£260,733); Breach (£156,140); Hallam Foe (£132,972); Two Days in Paris (£110,284); Year of the Dog (£5,733); #1 The Bourne Ultimatum £2,232,971 3rd week 468 screens 22% drop (28.9% of top 10)
Up 3.2% from 2006; (£5,908,103); Little Man (£1,090,761); The Wicker Man (£736,316); The Sentinel (£627,838); Crank (£450,141); Adrift (£337,718); #1 You, Me and Depree £1,165,610 2nd week 412 screens 29% drop (19.7% of top 10)
Down 4.2% from 2005 (£6,367,870); The Dukes of Hazzard (£1,720,754); The Cave (£563,761); The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lavagirl in 3D (£399,436); Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (£110,557); #1 The Dukes of Hazzard £1,720,754 1st week 447 screens (27.1% of top 10)
Down 29.7 from 2004 (£8,683,904); Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (£2,200,271); The Chronicles of Riddick (£1,043,685); The Motorcycle Diaries (£333,368); Raising Helen (£209,201); #1 Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story £2,200,271 1st week 315 screens (25.3% of top 10)
Down 19.5% from 2003 (£7,578,928); Jeepers Creepers 2 (£1,069,346); The Lizzie McGuire Movie (expansion) (£405,205); Hollywood Homicide (£352,445); Intermission (£146,220); #1 The Pirates of the Caribbean 4th week (2nd #1) £2,037,014 444 screens 3% drop (26.9% of top 10)
Down 2.2% from 2002 (£6,235,380); Insomnia (£1,159,754); The Sweetest Thing (£592,722); Windtalkers (£388,212); #1 Insomnia £1,159,754 1st week 264 screens (18.6% of top 10)
Down 4.4% from 2001 (£6,378,036); A Knight’s Tale (£1,678,264); Angel Eyes (£162,648); What’s Cooking (£45,445); #1 A Knight’s Tale £1,678,264 1st week 377 screens (26.3% of top 10);
Next weekend in 2019: Top three took 76.4% (£9,148,510) of the top 10 (£11,975,243); It Chapter 2 80.5% (£7,368,586); Once Upon A Time In Hollywood 11.8% (£1,084,302); Angel Has Fallen 7.6% (£695,622)
US Box Office
- The New Mutants – Disney/Fox
Opened with $7.03m; took $750,000 from Thursday previews and $3.1m from opening day Friday
The 15 20th Century Fox X-Men films have taken over $2.5bn in the US; $2.78bn international and $6.03bn worldwide; X-Men films were the 7th biggest franchise series worldwide after MCU, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Spider-Man, James Bond, and Batman.
Many US critics are refusing to review the film unless Disney offers them safe screenings options to watch the film, the only way is in a public cinema screening.
The New Mutants started filming in July 2017 and was originally due to be released in April 2018 but was delayed many times until it’s the final release date in May, with it opening August 28th in the US and September 4th in the UK. After the film was delayed many times many expected it to be released straight to Disney+ or Hulu but the film was contractually bound to have a theatrical release.
The first trailer was released in October 2017 a new trailer was released incorporating changed made to the film in January 2020, the trailer felt remarkably similar in tone to all of Disney’s MCU trailers and a further trailer was released in July during Comic-Con @Home
AV Club wrote an in-depth article about why they won’t be reviewing the film he wrote “Science experts did not mince words: There’s a very good chance you could get sick. And that’s a risk The A.V. Club will not be taking to review a movie, any movie,”… “We are, in fact, adopting the official policy of only reviewing films our writers can safely watch, whether in a socially distanced press screening or with a digital screener. And yes, that applies to all our writers, even those willing to take the risk for an assignment, because we’re not willing to monetize that risk, either.”
Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson tweeted last week “Don’t go see Tenet or any other movie in a theatre, There, I said it” following up the AV article.
While in May Spike Lee said “They ain’t doing a thing until the vaccine,” Lee said. “I know I’m not going to a movie theatre. I know I’m not going to a Broadway show. I know I’m not going to Yankee Stadium. Corona is a bitch. Corona is not playing. You fuck around you’re going to get killed, you’re going to die. I’m not ready to go.”
Disney probably did this on purpose as they don’t want reviews ahead of its release after the film is being dumped in cinemas this week and the film predictably received poor reviews (33% Rotten Tomatoes)
- Unhinged – Solstice Studios
Down 34.9% it’s third weekend taking $2.6m and $8.84m
Solstice Studios were hoping Unhinged would take over $30m in the US but it’s unlikely it will now do that, but foreign sales probably will see the film turn a profit.
The two busiest cinemas in the US were drive-ins, the Paramount and The Van Buren in Southern which was showing The New Mutants and Unhinged over the weekend, but Tenet won’t be allowed to play in drive-ins in states that regular cinemas aren’t open.
Unhinged was originally due to be released in September before it was brought forward to July 1st to be the first film to open when movie theatres reopened, but then Warner and Disney delayed Tenet and Mulan and Solstice Studios delayed the US release to August 24th, but the film still opened internationally in mid-July and the UK on July 24th.
The film has received mixed reviews (48% Rotten Tomatoes).
Solstice Studios gave social media badges to anyone brave enough to see Unhinged in cinemas first “I Saw Unhinged In A F*!#king Theater!”
- Bill & Ted Face the Music – Orion Pictures
Opened with $1.12m from 1,007 screens, the film was also released on PVOD, the film was originally only going to have a cinema release but 4 weeks ago Alex Winter announced on Twitter that it was opening a week earlier than planned and on PVOD.
1989’s Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure opened with $6.16m taking $40.48m
1991’s Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey opened with $10.24m taking $38.93m
The film was originally due to open in the UK on August 28th, but Warner Bros delayed it to September 18th after Tenet was dated in its place. While the first two films have become cult hits on the video they failed to find an audience in cinemas and opening the film three weeks after the US many will stream it illegally.
MGM relaunched Orion Pictures in 2014, Orion Pictures was the studio released the sequel in the US, Orion Pictures was an independent studio originally launched in the late 70s and one of many who tried to compete directly with the big 6 studios.
They originally released films through Warner Bros before setting up US distribution which is always where things go wrong as Orion Pictures didn’t have the same structure in place as the major studios and were much more dependent than they were on their films being successful in cinemas.
What helped Orion was they pre-sold international rights through output deals, the UK was through Rank Film Distributors and they released most of their films from Terminator to Oscar-winning The Silence of the Lambs.
At the 63rd Oscars in March 1991, host Billy Crystal made reference to the studio’s debt in his opening monologue, saying that “Reversal of Fortune is about a woman in a coma, Awakenings is about a man in a coma; and Dances with Wolves released by Orion, a studio in a coma.”
The year later Billy Crystal said ate Oscars “Take a great studio like Orion: a few years ago Orion released Platoon, it wins Best Picture. Amadeus, Best Picture. Last year, they released Dances with Wolves wins Best Picture. This year The Silence of the Lambs is nominated for Best Picture. And they can’t afford to have another hit! But there is good news and bad news. The good news is that Orion was just purchased, and the bad news is it was bought by the House of Representatives.”
In 1991 to generate the cash they sold international rights to their upcoming slate to Columbia Tristar Pictures that included Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, Love Field, RoboCop 3, The Dark Half, Blue Sky, Car 54, Where Are You?, The Favor, and There Goes My Baby, but soon after they filed for bankruptcy and in 1997 MGM acquired Orion Pictures 2,000+ library.
Opened Monday (previews) August 31st, Tenet
Tenet opens in the US on September 4th with previews from August 31st playing in about half as many cinemas as previous Christopher Nolan films including Dunkirk and Interstellar as it won’t be opening immediately in either New York or Los Angeles, these two states bring in about a third of the US box office; on Monday was announced that Tenet would play in New Jersey cinemas as well as some cinemas in California.
At the start of the year, Tenet would be expected to open with $70m+ but now it’s expected to open with about a third as much, boosted by 4 days of previews as it’s opening was in the UK last weekend.
Warner doesn’t believe the opening weekend for Tenet will be as important as they are normally as they believe the film will have strong legs but after the critical reaction wasn’t as positive as they might have expected it might not hold as strongly as they expected.
Studios have a lot riding on the success of Tenet as we have already seen many of this year’s films delayed to next year, the latest was The King’s Man last Thursday, it was originally set for release in September (having already been delayed over 6 months and was dated for February 2021 opening a year after it was originally dated.
On Friday Paramount Pictures also delayed several films into next year including Snake Eyes, leaving Warner Bros as the last studio standing with major releases until mid-October with Wonder Woman 1984 opening on October 2nd.
Will this be a stroke of genius for the studio (needing both to be as successful as previous Christopher Nolan films and the last Wonder Woman) or be folly. As if Tenet was to underperform it might be too late for Warner to delay Wonder Woman 1984, but other films including Soul and No Time To Die could be delayed to next year. There have been rumours Soul might go to Disney+ Premium and if Mulan is successful then it could as it only needs about a quarter of Disney+ subscribers to buy it and it will be as successful as many other Pixar films.
Warner Bros and exhibitors are expecting Tenet to have ling legs as seen by the some of the contract terms Warner Bros have demanded from exhibitors.
The three-days of preview screenings must start no earlier than 5pm with one screening a night but premium format cinemas can have 2.
Movie theatres have to comply with local laws and with safety standards from NATO including wearing a face mask anywhere in a cinema apart from when eating as everyone knows eating in a cinema is far more important than customers health and safety, as exhibitors are in the popcorn and syrup business not the film business and see food as Intrinsically to the cinema experience as they are highly profitable to exhibitors.
“These special terms are being offered to its exhibitor customers specifically for ‘Tenet’ to address the special circumstances in the market… including the high commercial risk from uncertain consumer demand, reopening rules, health and safety regulations, and socially distancing capacity issues.”
“Exhibitor specifically represents and warrants to Warner that it shall comply at all times with all applicable laws and regulations at its theatre(s), including without limitation, all laws, orders and standards relating public health and safety, such as rules and protective measures against the contraction and spread of COVID-19 or other illnesses and applicable voluntary health and safety measures and protocols regarding these matters as may be promulgated by the exhibition industry, such as NATO’s published health and safety protocols.”
Warner Bros have demanded 63% share of the box office and that Tenet must have the largest non-IMAX screen each week until otherwise agreed; Single screens – 4 weeks, with a third-weekend holdover figure determinant in place; Twins – 5+ weeks; 3 to 8 screens – 8 weeks; 9+ screens – 12 weeks
This would mean Tenet would play in the main screen of cinemas until Wonder Woman opens on October 2nd and give Disney/Warner problems with The King’s Man due to open September 18th.
Warner also requires maximum theatre marketing directed to publicizing Tenet at no extra cost to the studio and that three trailers for upcoming Warner Bros. films before Tenet, Warner also plans film rental collection in a shorter time frame, and ties collection to digital print access and won’t let exhibitors use Tenet to pay other bills.
These are terms only Disney can demand with Star Wars and Marvel films and would never possibly be able to demand in normal circumstances but are able to as exhibitors are so desperate for the film despite Tenet likely to take a quarter of what those films took and far less than other Christopher Nolan films have taken.
So exhibitors might not be so happy in a few weeks’ time when Tenet isn’t the massive film they expect, and it won’t be the saviour of cinemas as they have hoped it would be ever since March, but as there is limited other new studio content out there now until October Warner have the exhibitors where they want them for once.
While Tenet opens in cinemas on September 4th Mulan is released on Disney+ PVOD on the same day, it was originally due to be released in March but was delayed to July to open a week after Tenet due to the lockdown. It was due to open in China on August 28th but was delayed by two weeks likely due to The Eight Hundred opened in China two weeks ago with $161m and has taken over $277m to date.
Disney will be experiencing déjà vu with Mulan in China as many will watch it from illegally streams online from September 4th; in 1998 animated film was delayed in China by 6+ months due to Disney being banned (after releasing Kundun) many watched it on illegally video. When dating films with all the data studios have at their fingertips surprising how often seem to forget the consequences of their actions as surely Disney should have thought, let’s first get China date secured for Mulan and then we can date it for Disney+?
UK Box Office Top 10
UK Coming Soon
With Mulan going to PVOD on Friday and The King’s Man delayed to next February there are few films that will get a wide cinema release until Wonder Woman 1984 on October 2nd, this will see Tenet be #1 for the next four weeks. Tenet will be #1 for 5 weeks the same amount of weeks Joker did last year which was the first film since Avatar; Joker took £2,446,199 in its the fifth weekend, but doubtful Tenet will take anywhere nearly as much.
1998’s Titanic was the longest ever #1 with 13 consecutive weekends; 2000’s Toy Story 2 and Gladiator 7 weeks; 1999’s The World’s Not Enough and 2009’s Avatar 6 weeks and 1995’s Star Trek Generations, 1999’s A Bugs Life, 2001’s Bridget Jones’s Diary and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone all 5 weeks.
Only films that might spark a little interest before Wonder Woman 1984 are The Broken Hearts Gallery, Bill And Ted Face The Music, Andre Rieu’s Magical Maastricht: Together In Music, Rocks, VE Day 75 Live (delayed from May) and David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet.
- The Roads Not Taken – Universal Pictures
Drama starring Javier Bardem, Elle Fanning, Salma Hayek and Laura Linney and written and directed by Sally Potter; had the world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival in February and was released in the US in March days before lockdown taking only $3,518 from 3 screens; received mixed reviews (39% Rotten Tomatoes).
Sally Potter is most well-known for directing Oscar nomination Orlando in 1993 opened with £97,523 taking £181,801 and more recently 2012’s Ginger & Rosa opened with £62,689 from 38 screens taking £172,453.
- The Eight Hundred – Trinity Cine Asia
Chinese historical war drama film starring Oho Ou, Du Chun, Huang Zhizhong, Vision Wei, Wang Qianyuan, Jiang Wu, Zhang Yi, Li Chen, Yu Haoming, and Zheng Kai and directed by Guan Hu/ the film was originally set for release in June 2019 but was delayed till August 2020 after failing to get past the censors.
Opened with $116m having the biggest opening in China this year taking over $277m to date making it the biggest 2020 release from a single territory.
The film took $69m in its second weekend 30% more than Tenet opened in 70 territories worldwide, this is because Chinese BO is back to pre-lockdown levels as waited longer to reopen and then brought in much stricter safety measures over the first few weeks which gave cinemagoers confidence to return in larger numbers and allowed exhibitors to reduce stricter safety measures over last few weeks. Had other countries done similarly Tenet could have opened twice as big internationally? Tenet opens in China this week and will have a fight on its hands to open #1.
Will have a limited release in the UK of under 50 screens.
cigarette burns and missed changeovers 