Owing to a lack of competition from other releases, Warner Bros’ “Tenet” is currently outpacing the studio’s biggest 2019 hit “Joker” in pre-sold tickets. “Tenet” will most likely be playing at a record number of screens in various different cities across the world as it slowly, but surely starts being unveiled to the public next week. Of course, most of those theaters will be limited to around 40-50% seating capacity, due to social distancing protocols, but Christopher Nolan’s latest is the only show in town and those hungry to watch an exciting new blockbuster will be coming out in droves to catch the film.
I will be catching the film next Tuesday, but reviews keep pouring in from European-based critics as the film continues to be screened daily for as much press as possible. Meanwhile, “Tenet” has a Metacritic score of 70, this based on 20 reviews and over at Rotten Tomatoes the film continues to hold strong with an 80% fresh rating, this based on 46 reviews. Not outstanding numbers, but word-of-mouth still seems to be strong for Nolan’s film as the ubiquitous writer-director has never really won over every film critic during his 20-year-career.
Meanwhile, at this week’s box-office, positive signs emerged as “Unhinged,” the first release from Solstice Studios, reported an estimate of over $4 million in 1,823 theaters, resulting in a per-theater average of around $2,200. Those figures are mightily impressive, especially since fewer than half of the first-run theaters are currently open in North America, with only drive-ins open in the two biggest U.S. markets, New York and Los Angeles.