‘Tenet’ to screen early at theaters in some U.S. cities

NEW YORK » Some U.S. moviegoers will be able to see Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” a few days early. Warner Bros. on Tuesday said that it would be offering early access screenings starting Aug. 31 as a gesture of support to the domestic theaters that are reopening after five months of being closed because of COVID-19.

The $200 million spy thriller starring John David Washington will open more widely in the U.S. on Sept. 3.

“Tenet” is the first major new Hollywood movie to be released in theaters since most locations shuttered in mid-March.

It’s arrival could not come soon enough for the ailing theaters, many of which are opening this week without any significant new movies and instead programming popular back catalog films like “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Back to the Future” to entice audiences.

The nation’s largest exhibitor, AMC, will open some of its doors today, with Regal following on Friday.

‘60 Minutes’ leads quiet week in Nielsen ratings

NEW YORK » Led by the reliable “60 Minutes” on CBS, news programming dominated the television rankings on a quiet week in mid-August.

Nine of the 20 most popular programs were news or commentary shows, eight of them on Fox News Channel, the Nielsen company said.

CBS was the most popular broadcast network in prime time, averaging 3.2 million viewers. NBC had 2.8 million, ABC had 2.4 million, Fox had 1.5 million, Univision had 1.3 million, ION Television had 1.2 million and Telemundo had 1 million.

Fox News Channel led the cable networks with an average of 3.29 million viewers in prime time. ABC’s “World News Tonight” led the evening news ratings race, averaging 8.5 million viewers.