"Tenet" grossed $53 million worldwide in its opening weekend, and it will take $600 million to break even

Nolan's latest brain-burning sci-fi spy masterpiece "Tenet" recently opened in 40 markets around the world, with a first weekend gross of 53 million US dollars.

Tenet was released in 40 markets including the UK, France, New Zealand, Australia, Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea, with a box office of about $53 million in its first weekend. Under normal circumstances, such a performance of Nolan's works would be ugly, but considering the limited number of theaters reopening under the background of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the decline in attendance in South Korea due to the rebound of the epidemic, such performance is better than expected.

The global box office performance of "Tenet" is a positive signal for Hollywood studios. Toby Emmerich, chairman of Warner Bros. Pictures, said: "This is a good start in the international market and we are very happy. Christopher Nolan has once again proved that movies still need to be experienced in theaters. We are very pleased that audiences around the world can go to the theaters, and we also thank our theater partners for their hard work in epidemic prevention measures and social isolation. Considering the current epidemic situation, this release will be a marathon, not a sprint, and I hope this film can be shown in theaters for a long time."

"Tenet" performed well in different regions: the UK had $7.1 million, France had $7 million, South Korea had $5.1 million, and Germany had $4.2 million, winning the championship in almost all markets. In nine markets including the Netherlands, Ukraine, and Hungary, it even created the highest opening for a Nolan film.

Considering that the production cost of "Tenet" exceeded $200 million, its performance in the two major markets of mainland China and the United States on September 4 is even more critical. According to the usual calculation, the global box office of the film must exceed $600 million to ensure a return on investment.

In terms of IMAX, "Tenet" screened on 248 screens in 38 markets and earned $5 million, accounting for 9.4% of the total box office, which is the best performance of IMAX films released in August. Nolan's other two films, "Dunkirk" and "Interstellar", had IMAX box office shares of 12.6% and 9.6% respectively in the first weekend of the global first weekend, but they were released in July and November.