Will Tenet break Nolan’s fanfare mystique?

He’s had back to back films now with Dunkirk and Interstellar which have been a little underwhelming. Nothing bad (and still profitable), but certainly not living up to the hype leading up to it.

Along comes Tenet, with little more than vague hints as to what the plot is. Is the lead a cop? Secret agent? Is he trying to break into this shadow organization or defend something? Pretty much all we know is that there is a mind bendy sci fi concept at its core which is where Nolan is at its best but the marketing campaign seems less able to attract the attention of mainstream movie goers than his previous cinematic experiments.

Then you throw in COVID-19, and the fact that it will be one of the earliest releases once the movie industry comes back: will people be willing enough to go to movies in the droves to make a tent pole blockbuster profitable? And willing enough to compensate for both the reduced capacity of theaters both in terms of fewer seats/tickets sold and inevitable closures of locations? Especially considering with the compressed releases, it will be less time than normal that the “new film” will have that period of exclusivity.

And do so well enough to overcome this:

quote:

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With a production budget between $200–225 million, Tenet is Nolan's most expensive original project. IndieWire speculated that the marketing could push final costs to $300–350 million, while Observer estimated the film would need to make $450–500 million in order to break even. Nolan is reported to receive twenty percent of the first-dollar gross.

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It all just seems to be a set up of circumstances to cause a box office bomb regardless of the movie quality that will make the studio eat it’s hat and make them far more leery to give Nolan green lights and free reign on his original projects going forward.

Probably the only upside the movie has going for it in the current climate is that the lead is black.