Thanks in part to solid numbers in Asia, Warner Bros.’ “Tenet” crossed $250 million at the global box office this weekend. However, domestic grosses continue to lag as the film only grossed $4.7 million in North America, bringing its total in the U.S. and Canada to $36.1 million.
Warner Bros. is still holding out for theaters in major cities like New York and Los Angeles to potentially reopen and provide some boost to American grosses, as the film only added 20 additional theaters this weekend to bring its screen count to 2,930. The slow numbers have provoked concern that the majority of American moviegoers are not confident enough in the safety of movie theaters and public spaces in general to consider buying tickets.
As in past weekends, the silver lining for “Tenet” has come from more promising overseas numbers, including a solid $4.3 million opening in Japan from just 488 locations, topping the opening weekends of Nolan’s previous films “Interstellar” and “Dunkirk.” In China, the film took in $5.6 million in its third weekend to bring its total to just over $60 million. While that will pass the $51 million Chinese total of “Dunkirk,” “Tenet” will remain well short of Nolan’s Chinese record held by “Interstellar,” which has earned $140 million in that country including $18 million from a re-release this past summer.
As for the rest of the U.S. box office, theaters that reopened for “Tenet” now face several weeks without major studio releases as two prominent titles scheduled for October — “Wonder Woman 1984” and “Candyman” — have been postponed. The lone new release of the weekend was the indie film “Infidel” starring Jim Caviziel, which grossed $1.5 million from 1,729 screens for an average of less than $900. Holdovers showed similar numbers with 20th Century’s “The New Mutants” taking “$1.6 million for a $17.7 million total while Sony’s “The Broken Hearts Gallery” took in $800,000 for a total of $2.4 million.