Box Office: Chris Nolan’s ‘Tenet’ Is Still One Of The Top-Grossing Original Movies Since ‘Interstellar’

Even under ideal circumstances, Chris Nolan’s Tenet was always going to gross closer to Interstellar or Dunkirk than Inception or The Dark Knight.

For those still following along, Chris Nolan’s Tenet earned an additional $4.6 million worldwide in 61 global markets this weekend, which was a solid -30% drop from last weekend’s global totals. The John David Washington/Robert Pattinson sci-fi flick, which even AT&T
T
chief John Stankey admitted didn’t quite perform as hoped, earned $1.3 million (-15%) in weekend eight, its best domestic hold yet, for a $52.5 million North American cume. It should pass The Prestige ($53.1 million domestic from a $14 million launch in October of 2006) sometime this week. Even with everything going wrong, especially in America, Tenet is playing almost on par with Interstellar in key overseas territories and is already one of the biggest live-action Hollywood originals since Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity.

The film is earning maybe 1/3 of what it might have grossed in North America under normal circumstances, as the divisive word-of-mouth, lack of butts-in-seats stars and general “plot over character” puzzle-building likely would have yielded a domestic cume closer to $150 million than $200 million. That would have been just fine for a big-budget original studio release, especially one sold almost entirely on the marquee director and the high concept and especially in a conventional timeline where WB’s In the Heights and Wonder Woman 1984 were kicking butt concurrently. With $66 million in China, $23 million in Japan and $22 million in the UK, Tenet is playing at around 75% of what it would have overseas under normal circumstances.

Even the $677 million-grossing (sans reissues) Interstellar (with big movie stars and a more crowd-pleasing narrative) earned “just” $34 million in the United Kingdom in 2014/2015. It has earned $11 million in Russia, which wasn’t far off from the $19 million cume for Interstellar. Tenet has more than doubled the $10 million gross of Interstellar in Japan, which is another sign alongside the boffo run of Demon Slayer that theatrical business has somewhat returned to normal in Japan as well as China. Even before everything went to hell, I was expecting to compare Tenet to Interstellar or Dunkirk as opposed to Inception. And quite frankly, $250 million domestic and $1 billion worldwide was never, ever on the table.

Warner Bros.’ Inception ($292 million domestic and $824 million worldwide in 2010) had a unique combination of positive variables (Leonardo DiCaprio, Nolan coming off The Dark Knight, rave reviews, a lack of end-of-summer competition, the awful May/June summer releases, etc.). Offhand, the surprisingly huge $122 million cume in China in 2014/2015 (one of the biggest grosses for a Hollywood movie ever at the time) is the only reason Paramount and Warner Bros.’ Interstellar (which earned “just” $189 million domestic) got anywhere near Gravity’s $724 million cume. Give Interstellar the over/under $70 million Chinese cume of Inception and Gravity and its global total barely crosses $625 million. That would have been fine, but again China artificially inflated the global gross of an already successful movie.

Absent the pandemic, Tenet would have arguably earned around $400 million overseas and $165 million domestic for a $565 million cume. That might have been viewed as disappointing, but A) it would be about on par with the equally star-free (but $100 million-costing) Dunkirk and B) Warner Bros. would have hopefully been drowning in In the Heights and Wonder Woman 1984 grosses. Its current $341.4 million global gross still makes it one of the biggest live-action Hollywood originals since Gravity in late 2013. On that scale, it sits behind Interstellar ($700 million), Dunkirk ($525 million), San Andreas ($494 million), Lucy ($459 million), La La Land ($441 million), 1917 ($384 million) and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood ($374 million). 3/8 for Chris Nolan isn’t too shabby.