Tenet Continues to Struggle at U.S. Box Office While Crossing $250M Worldwide

MovieWeb

By Kevin Burwick

Published Sep 20, 2020

Warner Bros. had some further success overseas with Tenet opening in select Asian markets over the weekend.

Tenet has officially grossed $250.1 million globally. However, only $36.1 million of that overall total comes from North America, with the Christopher Nolan movie bringing in $4.6 million this weekend. The highly anticipated movie opened in select Asian markets over the weekend, generating a substantial $25 million boost. It debuted at number 1 in Japan with $4.3 million, thanks to local recent screenings of Dunkirk and Interstellar raising hype. 27% of Tenet's Japanese box office earning came from the $1.15 million it generated from 38 IMAX screens.

Mexico was another area where Tenet did well at the box office over the weekend. About 88% of movie theaters are open and it helped the movie earn another $850,000. It's also the first area in Latin America to debut the Christopher Nolan movie. As for domestic theaters, they are open, though not in every major market. Traditional theaters and drive-ins are not showing the movie in all major markets, due to the public health crisis. Even in cities where theaters are open, ticket sales are still sluggish as people are apprehensive to go and see movies on the big screen again.

Disney's live action adaptation of Mulan saw a 72% drop in its second weekend in China, adding $6.5 million to bring the local total to $36.2 million. With that being said, the remake has been successful on Disney+, with analysts speculating that it may have already surpassed Tenet's box office totals, which even stands after another weekend in theaters for the Christopher Nolan movie. It has been speculated that Mulan could have already passed the $261 million mark from streaming alone, and that means pure profits for Disney. They don't have to share with theaters or outside vendors since it was a $30 add-on to Disney+ subscribers.

Elsewhere, Fox's The New Mutants was able to bring in $1.6 million, which is 23% drop since last weekend, while Infidel and Unhinged brought in $1.5 million and $1.3 million, respectively. From there, things fall off considerably since consumers are still skeptical about visiting movie theaters, even with new safety protocols in place. While Disney has claimed that Mulan will be a one-off release, one can see them changing their tune, thanks to the success they've had bringing the movie direct to consumers, who can watch it with their families in the comfort of their own homes.

As for Tenet, Warner Bros. is waiting for major markets in Los Angeles and New York to make up for some lost revenue when things get back to some sort of normalcy. It's unclear when that will happen, but the studio seems intent on keeping the movie on the big screen and not throwing it up on VOD, at least at this time. That could all change in the coming weeks, so we'll just have to wait and see. The Number was the first to report on Tenet's box office earnings this weekend.