I know I'm a broken record at this point, but WB and Nolan massively overplayed their confidence in Tenet's accessibility. Likely from conception to release. Audiences don't want to leave the safety of their homes and watch a movie that takes this much work to enjoy.
At minimum, they should've had this release late 2020. At best, they should have delayed to 2021.
-Vader
And they shouldn’t have spent $200M on it. I think this is the end of Nolan’s mega budget green light, unless he agrees to do a franchise movie with a guaranteed audience like James Bond, Batman, Star Wars, Marvel, etc. Dunkirk’s budget at $100M is the area WB should be targeting for his original movies.
This feels over dramatic. The end of it? Too soon to tell and even if with time Tenet doesn’t make a lot of money (very likely), we can’t really say whether or not it’ll put a stop to getting a similar amount of money to make his films down the road. And they shouldn’t have spent that much money? I wouldn’t say that, and if anything it shows they can commit to deliver new ideas and take risks which isn’t very usual for big studios like WB. The pandemic isn’t helping so WB knows it isn’t just a problem of the film itself. That was something out of their control.
Also some may agree or not but they seem to be helping theaters as well. I mean, considering the pandemic, it was very likely from the beginning they were not going to make a lot of money releasing it at this time. Anyway, only time will tell what the result of all this is going to be.
I don't think Tenet's underperformance will take away Nolan's keys to Warner Brothers by any means, but it may open fewer doors.
And yes, I think Nolan asking 200 million for his least accessible movie, a convoluted head-fuck with emotionally vacant characters, and then purposefully muffling the dialogue, is a hubristic recipe for disaster that verges on irresponsibility.
Lots and lots of dropped balls here...I do agree not having drive ins play in states like CA was a major mistake even if they had a 5d reason (like pressuring states to reopen indoor theaters). Similarly they were overconfident in the films reception. It would have been wise to swap WW84 with Tenet...but...they shouldnt have delayed all releases until 2021.
The thing is, ALL films will perform worse. Tenet taking the biggest brunt might not have been smartest but it means WW loses less and so on. Theaters had to reopen at some point
Edit: Also I was overconfident and hadnt seen the film yet before. I admit its unlikely to break even at the box office but after all is said and done, I think it will
Last edited by DarkChocolateOreo on September 6th, 2020, 4:33 pm, edited 2 times in total.
I don't think Tenet's underperformance will take away Nolan's keys to Warner Brothers by any means, but it may open fewer doors.
And yes, I think Nolan asking 200 million for his least accessible movie, a convoluted head-fuck with emotionally vacant characters, and then purposefully muffling the dialogue, is a hubristic recipe for disaster that verges on irresponsibility.
-Vader
Why do you think he purposefully muffled the dialogue?
I don't think Tenet's underperformance will take away Nolan's keys to Warner Brothers by any means, but it may open fewer doors.
And yes, I think Nolan asking 200 million for his least accessible movie, a convoluted head-fuck with emotionally vacant characters, and then purposefully muffling the dialogue, is a hubristic recipe for disaster that verges on irresponsibility.
-Vader
Why do you think he purposefully muffled the dialogue?
Nolan (probably) erroneously believes Tenet works as a visceral thrill ride ala dunkirk, and that audiences will more-or-less get the gist of what's happening, but this just doesn't fucking work when you've made your talkiest movie in 18 years with the most convoluted rule-set of your career and it's just endless exposition drowned out by sound design and music. I personally was able to mostly follow along, and did go on the ride he wanted me to, but most won't really.
There's multiple key 'pivotal' scenes you just throw your arms up and accept you won't understand a word of. And PS, it's the worst dialogue of his career. JDW gets searched at one point and he says "where I'm from you'd buy me dinner first." Yikes!
It's hard to judge the mix of whether the poor performance was due to people still being afraid of going back to theaters or just a generally uninterest in the movie from casual moviegoers. A big movie like WW1984 would of been a better judge of people's desire to go back to theaters.
WB definitely didn't put out a movie in the middle of a global pandemic to make a huge profit. Their goal is of course to break even but even if that's not gonna happen their relation to Nolan won't change one percent. And if they can help to save some cinemas along the way that's another big plus.
Some of you are talking about the BO numbers like it's the summer of 2019
Of course we have to look at cinemas on the whole after Covid is in control. Maybe the situation in 2023 isn't at all comparable to let's say 2019 but if it is they will happily throw 200mio at Nolan if he wants that budget.
Like I said in another thread: If WB doesn't want to cooperate in the future, any other major studio would give its right nut to distribute a Nolan film.
And we must not forget that Nolan might already have the financial resources to make a +100mio film without any studio money.
Let's all just be happy that we can see a batshit crazy (covid reference right there) Nolan film in the middle of a pandemic and one that we can talk about at least until 2023 when the next one is likely to come out
Last edited by Mr. Alley on September 6th, 2020, 5:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
