Christopher Nolan’s Tenet Removed From Release Schedule

Well, it looks like the other shoe has finally dropped. Tenet, which was set to be the film that helped open theaters in the United States once again, has been delayed by Warner Bros. The latest Christopher Nolan project was originally slated for a July 17th release, before rising coronavirus cases saw it pushed back to July 31st, before another delay sent it to August. Now, with cases still rising across the country, Warner Bros. has put Tenet on the shelf for the time being.

Over the past couple of weeks, this move has seemed inevitable. Los Angeles County began shutting down once again, meaning that movie theaters in the country’s biggest market wouldn’t be able to open. It was always unlikely that Warner Bros. would release its biggest film of the year when Los Angeles was closed, and now things are official. Warner Bros. remains hopeful that Tenet will still be released in 2020, but a new date has yet to be announced.

“We will share a new 2020 release date imminently for Tenet, Christopher Nolan‘s wholly original and mind-blowing feature,” Warner Bros. chairman Toby Emmerich said in a statement. “We are not treating Tenet like a traditional global day-and-date release, and our upcoming marketing and distribution plans will reflect that.”

According to Variety, sources at WB have indicated that the studio is going to be flexible about Tenet‘s release, meaning that it likely won’t have a traditional rollout. This could see the film open in international markets ahead of the US, considering many countries have began opening theaters back up and Nolan’s films have traditionally performed well overseas.

Along with Tenet, Warner Bros. delayed the third movie in the Conjuring series, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, back to June 4, 2021.

“Our goals throughout this process have been to ensure the highest odds of success for our films while also being ready to support our theater partners with new content as soon as they could safely reopen,” Emmerich said. “We’re grateful for the support we’ve received from exhibitors and remain steadfast in our commitment to the theatrical experience around the world. Unfortunately, the pandemic continues to proliferate, causing us to reevaluate our release dates.”

Are you disappointed to see Tenet and The Conjuring 3 delayed? Do you think Tenet will end up in theaters before the year is over? Let us know in the comments!