Warner Bros. has done the right thing. They’ve moved Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” to August 12th from July 31st. But that won’t be the last reschedule of this movie. Theatres in New York and Los Angeles simply aren’t ready for a blockbuster. In New York, everyone is so wary that it’s like a ghost town. In LA, COVID numbers are zooming. No one’s even going to a small screening room.
They’ve pushed the “Inception” re-release to July 31st. But they’ve got to be dreaming if they think there’s an audience on that date. “Inception” will float along with the “Tenet” changes. (Are we getting the idea that “Tenet” is, if not a sequel, a cousin of “Inception”?)
Other movies are still set for July, and that seems ill advised on its face. Disney still insists “Mulan” will happen on July 24th. But children going into theaters and getting infected en masse isn’t anything the Mouse House wants to be involved in. Look for “Mulan” to move again or go on Disney Plus just to get it over with.
Everyone is disappointed with what’s going on, and certainly the business is suffering in ripple waves of furloughs and unemployment. But this has become a game the way airlines won’t tell the truth when you’re at the gate have been waiting for five hours. “We’re leaving in two hours,” they say, only to revise that one hour and three quarters later. The people at the gate start yelling, right? Well, the movie audience is at the gate. It’s time to tell them to go home and re-book.
So here’s the schedule right now, and it’s about to go out the window.
Unhinged (7/10) The Broken Hearts Gallery (7/17) Saint Maud (7/17) Mulan (7/24) Inception (7/31) Empty Man (8/7) Tent (8/12) Bill & Ted Face the Music (8/14) Greenland (8/14)
