Christopher Nolan's upcoming mystery spy thriller Tenet is under a lot of pressure. Currently being held up as the movie that will bring people back to cinemas following global closures, it has now been revealed that, due to the cost of $400 million in production and marketing, will need gross $800 million in global box office just to break even.

Thanks to the ongoing global situation, cinemas and the entertainment industry have taken a battering financially, and all hopes are on Tenet being enticing enough to fill theaters across the globe when it is eventually released. The movie has been delayed several times due to the current circumstances and is currently scheduled to be released by Warner Bros. Pictures later this year on August 12. But, are people going to be ready to go back to the cinemas then? With the situation constantly in flux, it is difficult to predict how audiences will feel come that time. The ludicrous figure of $800 million to break even would be difficult under normal circumstances, and these are far from that.

Nolan though is desperate for Tenet to be released in theaters, with the director reportedly butting heads with the studio over the release date. A new report has detailed Warner Bros. and Nolan's efforts to get the movie released, and while it states that the two are "in concert" about distributing Tenet in a safe and timely manner, there has seemingly been a debate about how a release could play out. Sources suggest that Nolan and Warner Bros. had discussed releasing Tenet internationally prior to in North America, but that Nolan continues to want to support American theaters by having the movie open worldwide on the same date.

No doubt Nolan is also trying to protect his creative vision as well, with Tenet's still very secretive plot at risk of being spoiled should the movie open in different places on different dates. The passionate director took more than five years to write the screenplay for Tenet after deliberating about the central ideas for over a decade, and understandably does not want the experience watered down by spoilers.

The director has spoken before about the importance of Tenet being seen on the big screen saying, "This is a film whose image and sound really needs to be enjoyed in your theaters on the big screen and we're very very excited for you to see what it is we've done. We've made big films in the past, but this is a film whose global reach and level of action is beyond anything we've ever attempted before. I think we only would have been able to pull off this film with the level of experience we've had doing action films in the past."

Much like most of Nolan's movies, specific details surrounding the plot are being kept tightly under wraps. The official synopsis reads, "Armed with only one word -- Tenet -- and fighting for the survival of the entire world, the Protagonist journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real time". One thing we do now know is the Tenet's official runtime, which at 149 minutes and 59 seconds, or just shy of two and half hours, stands as one of Nolan's shortest movies to date.

Tenet has been written and directed by Christopher Nolan and stars John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Michael Caine, and Kenneth Branagh. While Tenet is currently scheduled to be released on August 12, this is very likely to change. This comes to us from Indiewire.