‘Tenet’ Scores $20 Million At U.S. Box Office, While Disney+ Downloads Spike With ‘Mulan’ Release
Warner Bros.‘Tenetand Disney’sMulanhave been hand-in-hand for most of the summer — they were both being primed to be the first big blockbusters that would reopen movie theaters amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, they were both delayed three times each, they were both major tentpoles starring a POC lead. But the studios ended up going in very different directions as August neared and the pandemic’s end was nowhere in sight. Warner Bros. decided to releaseTenetoverseas first before opening it in any operating theaters in the U.S., while Disney chose to takeMulanstraight to streaming (and an overseas theatrical release). So, which strategy worked out best?
It’s still too early to say yet, but both did pretty decently considering theweird theatrical release strategyforTenetand the premium price forMulan.
Tenet Gets a Respectable Box Office Opening in the U.S.
In the 2,810 American theaters in whichTenetopened, including some in California, the Christopher Nolan espionage film grossed $20.2 million over the five-day Labor Day weekend,Forbesreports. While that wouldn’t break any records (Rob Zombie’sHalloweenholds the Labor Day weekend crown with $30.5 million), it’s still a decent number, even if the film didn’t exceed expectations like it did withlast week’s overseas opening.
Forbes notes that the hope is that theaters, including domestic theaters that screenTenetin their biggest non-IMAX screens for 4 to 12 weeks, will benefit from audiences checking out the movie at a slower pace than the usual frontloaded opening weekend haul.
With a roughly $146 million worldwide total haul (thanks to new openings in Russia and China, though it underperformed in the latter), Forbes estimates thatTenetwill end its run with $480 million worldwide — certainly a number that will allow Warner Bros. to break even and justify its strange domestic release strategy (which included not allowing drive-in theaters to playTenetwhere regular theaters were closed). Now, whether it was all worth endangering the lives of moviegoers is another matter.
Disney+ Downloads Spike Following ‘Mulan’ Release
While there are no official numbers yet as toMulan’s performance on Disney+, it does seem to indicate that people are willing to pay to see the Chinese warrior in action.
