THE TENET TIMELINE
The inverted chronology of CHRISTOPHER NOLAN’S troubled time-twister
3 NOVEMBER 2020
After taking $350 million worldwide, Tenet is seen by some commentators as a ‘flop’ and it remains unclear whether it’s broken even (factoring in marketing costs on top of the $200 million budget). But Nolan tells the Los Angeles Times he’s delighted with the result. “Long-term, moviegoing is a part of life,” he says, “like restaurants and everything else. But right now, everybody has to adapt to a new reality.”
11 OCTOBER 2020
Following six weekends at the top of the US box-office chart, Tenet is toppled by Robert De Niro comedy The War
With Grandpa.
26 AUGUST 2020
Tenet finally opens. It’s the first big Hollywood movie to light up cinemas since the pandemic started.
27 JULY 2020
Warner Bros. locks down a release date. With an appropriately inverted release model, Tenet will debut internationally on 26 August, then follow in select US cities from 3 September.
20 JULY 2020
In a shocking move, Warner Bros. removes Tenet from its release schedule. It can’t be treated as “a traditional global day-anddate release,” says studio chairman Toby Emmerich. It’s estimated each delay costs the studio between $200,000 and $400,000 in marketing fees.
25 JUNE 2020
Once again, Tenet’s release is delayed, to 12 August, after it becomes clear that neither Los Angeles nor New York City will be allowed to reopen cinemas in time.
12 JUNE 2020
After much conjecture about Tenet holding to its release date and bringing audiences back into empty multiplexes, Warner Bros. announces it will be delayed to 31 July.
20 MARCH 2020
The Washington Post publishes an op-ed by Nolan in which he argues that cinemas are “a vital part of social life, providing jobs for many and entertainment for all”.
18 MARCH 2020
California issues the United States’ first stay-at-home order. With Covid-caused lockdown preventing composer Ludwig Göransson from gathering a full orchestra, he has to record all the musicians playing separately in their homes.
19 DECEMBER, 2019
In true Nolan style, an Imax-only six-minute prologue is screened, ahead of The Rise Of Skywalker.
12 NOVEMBER 2019
Tenet wraps after a final stretch in California, during which Nolan destroys a real, decommissioned 747 at Victorville Airport (but not before fixing its brakes) and mounts the massive climactic battle at an old iron-ore mine in the ghost town of Eagle Mountain.
16 SEPTEMBER 2019
‘Merry Go Round’ reaches Mumbai at the end of monsoon season. Despite heavy rain and an ambitious upwards bungee-jump stunt at a high-rise in Breach Candy, Nolan’s scheduled ten-day Indian shoot is done in five.
1 AUGUST 2019
Audiences get their first glimpse of Nolan’s mysterious spy thriller during a surprise, 40-second teaser ahead of totally non-mysterious spy thriller Hobbs & Shaw. After a shot of John David Washington walking slowly towards a broken window, a tagline flashes up: “Time has come for a new protagonist.”
22 MAY 2019
Tenet starts shooting in Estonia under the working title of ‘Merry Go Round’. Apparently taking place in “the world of international espionage”, the production will visit seven countries in three continents, while Nolan and DP Hoyte van Hoytema will get through more than 1.6 million feet of IMAX film.
25 JANUARY 2019
Warner Bros. announces Christopher Nolan’s next movie, giving no details but a release date: 17 July 2020.