The Christopher Nolan's recent thriller, Tenet did impressive worldwide numbers, surpassing $361 million. But domestically it was hurt by the pandemic and failed to ignite flagging box office proceeds.
The veteran director feels more confident his movie will make a significant mark in the DVD market.
Five Things You Need to Know:
- Tenet is the story of a secret agent who manipulates the flow of time to prevent a global catastrophe. Nolan told us: "With the concept of Tenet, with the science fiction component and the complexity that are allowed, I feel as an audience member I get to look at these things differently, they get turned on their head a little bit."
- Writer and director, Nolan conceived the ideas behind Tenet over the course of two decades, but began working on the script in 2014. He said: "I don’t have expectations of the audience, I am the audience for my movies, I make the films that I would be interested in seeing as an audience member, so I have expectations of the film not the audience."
- He goes on to say: "The expectation is if it’s a large scale film, if it’s a spy movie, or action, all the rest, first and foremost, it has to be an entertaining experience. It has to carry me visually and excite me to watch it, but I’m also looking for something new from that film for a reason to watch another car chase, or to watch another plane crash, and why we revisit these things."
- Nolan's directorial efforts have grossed more than $5.1 billion worldwide, garnered 34 Oscar nominations and 10 wins. He gained international recognition with his second film, Memento in 2000, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He transitioned from independent to studio filmmaking with Insomnia in 2002 and found further critical and commercial success with The Dark Knight Trilogy from 2005–2012. Then came The Prestige and Inception, which received eight Oscar nominations, including for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. In 2014 he released Interstellar, then three years later it was the Oscar-nominated, Dunkirk.
- Upon its release back on September 3, Tenet took in nearly $58 million domestically with a $20 million opening weekend that was a sobering wakeup call for Hollywood.
Many theaters are crippled with closers and many fans scared to watch a movie in a theater during a pandemic. Both New York City and Los Angeles didn't show Tenet in their respective cities due to closed multi-plex. Christopher is optimistic the business will bounce back saying "it’s not the question of optimism, our film has made more than $300 million in the international markets and there are plenty of territories where it’s been my most successful film."