I've just been to the cinema to see it (local opening night, no official lockdowns, but numbers climbing) and they were pretty bare. Granted, I'm not in a country where people would storm the cinemas for a superhero opening night anyway not is it a big streaming country, but my screen only had 7 people! As did many other screenings/cinemas I checked when choosing my slot. Simultaneous launches are probably the best way to go at the moment - both for the production company as well as the Covid situation, though, yes, cinemas are clearly drawing the short end of the stick with this. I don't think the cinemas will disappear entirely, though some may go under and I would be more than happy to see a change and the cinemas to work for their audience by adjusting their prices and screen quality. My nearest cinema in the UK (not where I am now), while does have refurbed screens at least, charges about £10+ for one ticket, and then probably around £20 for a popcorn and two non-alcoholic drinks. A date night for two will easily cost you £40-£50, which can be entire day's wages for someone. I absolutely love the big screen experience, but I also refuse to be robbed. The business model needs an update.

I'm in the UK too and went last night. Our local cinema isn't too bad or expensive, and I normally use Meerkat Movies. Didn't last night as they were only charging £3.50 a seat, so I figured they needed the "full" price!

Screen was busier than I expected (been fewer people for some showings pre-plague) but not exactly at Covid Capacity. Their booking algorithm needs adapting; two seats either SIDE get blocked out, but I would've thought that the worst place would be in front of someone. Luckily the place my wife and I sit was clear all around. (We think centre front - there's still no need to "look up" - is great).

Film was a bit over-hyped, though we loved the cameo near the start of the credits.

The advantage is that now we don't have to wait weeks to get a torrent available. I'm downloading the movie and will check it out. The trailer looked good!

I went to the theater to watch Tenet (I regret it). If the movie is nice I might watch it too on the big screen.

It was a good idea releasing this straight to streaming seeing as how it's a gigantic flop in all the countries with a theatrical release.

Her next appearance is straight to streaming too when Hack Snyder's 4 hour version of Justice League is inflicted on the world.

It should of been made in present day.

It's a flop it managed to bring in only $ 3 million worldwide last week.

@acontributor said:

I don't think it can be compared to previous box office movies since it was released on HBO Max free to subscribers, and people just don't go to see movies as much now as they used to. There is just no way to factor that in. So you can't call it a flop based on the box office numbers.

Exactly. Warners probably only released it theatrically out of a sense of obligation. They would have known that not many screens are open and few people would be visiting them. Plus surely a sizeable percentage of those who have seen the movie outside of HBO Max would have obtained it through "unofficial" channels.

It's like the people who crow about Tenet being a "flop". Second biggest film of the year and closing in on $400 million in the time of the plague is pretty good going. OK, Chris Nolan my have been a bit over optimistic about how well it would do, but it's a miracle it's taken so much money.

Sorry the theaters are in a mess and it won't be until a couple of years until movie going is restored to it's pre-Covid numbers but in the current time all movies with budgets over 100 million are likely to flop it's gonna take a longtime for the billion dollar earning movies to come back.Studios should focus on making cheaper movies and focus on the streaming market plus I don't think theaters can compete with streaming services in the future both quality and price wise.Wonder Woman 1984 was bound to be a financial disaster by releasing it in the current climate .Heck even a tent pole movie like Tenet by Noolan (which usually in itself is usually enough to draw in large numbers of viewers)barely broke even.In fact 400 million(actually it's 363 million)Worldwide may sound like a lot of money but if you take into account the production costs of 205 million and that you have to add a similar sum to the total production costs for advertising etc Tenet still made a loss of roughly 50 million. .And Tenet is deliberately convoluted to give the illusion that it has something worthwhile to tell too much Noolan trying too hard to be a smart ass.

@acontributor said:

Not to change the subject, but was Tenet any good?

I enjoyed it more than Nolan's last two (Interstellar and Dunkirk); even bought the BluRay (mainly because I had a voucher that made it £10) and may revise my opinion up or down after a rewatch - probably on Monday.

It's basically Nolan does Bond with his usual timey wimey obsessions dominating. Quite confusing and, at least in the theatres, very LOUD but it all leads up to loads of "so that's why..." revelations at the end. If you've enjoyed Nolan's non-franchise stuff it's worth a watch.

@acontributor said:

I don't think it can be compared to previous box office movies since it was released on HBO Max free to subscribers, and people just don't go to see movies as much now as they used to. There is just no way to factor that in. So you can't call it a flop based on the box office numbers.

I think you can maybe say "it may not have been a flop but for circumstances". However no matter what the circumstances if it's tanked in terms of gate receipts vs production costs, then there's no escaping it is a flop...

Wonder Woman 1984 was a bad movie to begin with.

@Midi-chlorian_Count said:

I think you can maybe say "it may not have been a flop but for circumstances". However no matter what the circumstances if it's tanked in terms of gate receipts vs production costs, then there's no escaping it is a flop...

I think you can say "it may have been a flop in normal circumstances but there's no way to tell". Guess it depends on one's predisposition.

I don't think box office takings can be used as a "flop" measure in the current climate.

I think it is safe to say that any movie with a budget over 100-150 million is going to be a financial flop in the current climate because theaters aren't drawing in the numbers of viewers to make them profitable plain and simple.And the fact that most of Europe will be in lock down until April possibly even longer it's gonna take some losses by the mainstream studios of all those big budget movies they have been holding back for the past year(Dune,Black Widow,Matrix 4,No Time To Die,Avatar 2 etc).Also here in Holland there are serious talks of an evening curfew from 8 PM to 6 AM where no one is allowed outside will be a further nail in the proverbial coffin of movie theaters. WB/HBO declaring to put their entire slate of movies for 2021 on streaming may not be such a bad decision in hindsight

@M.LeMarchand said:

@Midi-chlorian_Count said:

I think you can maybe say "it may not have been a flop but for circumstances". However no matter what the circumstances if it's tanked in terms of gate receipts vs production costs, then there's no escaping it is a flop...

I think you can say "it may have been a flop in normal circumstances but there's no way to tell". Guess it depends on one's predisposition.

I don't think box office takings can be used as a "flop" measure in the current climate.

Not sure you can really flip it like that - My point was that regardless of circumstances it's going to lose a lot of money. That's what a flop is.

Whether it's a good film or not is another question. Personally I've never been a follower of box office success or failure to determine whether a film is any good or not anyway, so until I see it I won't be able to make a judgement on that...

@Midi-chlorian_Count said:

Not sure you can really flip it like that - My point was that regardless of circumstances it's going to lose a lot of money. That's what a flop is.

Sorry, meant to reply earlier. I'd disagree. "Flop" is frequently used by anti-fanbois to denigrate something they decided not to like: Because it wasn't financially successful, therefore their condemning of it was always right because no-one else liked it. It has negative connotations beyond not making as much money as expected.

I don't think you can call anything that got released during The Time of the Plague a flop for those reasons. If you look at the box office takings worldwide for 2020 https://www.the-numbers.com/box-office-records/worldwide/all-movies/cumulative/released-in-2020 Tenet was the second highest grossing "Western" film - I wonder if the only one to beat it would have done so well if it had been released at the same time? (Chart also shows why it's important to cater to the Chinese market these days!) Given that it released so late in the year and straight to HBOMax, WW84's showing is pretty decent on that chart, too.

@acontributor: Still enjoyed Tenet on a second viewing, though missed the cinema's sound system (didn't think the neighbour's would be happy if I tried to match it). Still didn't grasp the final battle and also still not sure that the closing scene makes sense. That said, I'd watch it again.