A month ago a filmmaker friend told me that “the major [exhibitor] chains have moved their opening date from June 26th to July 8th. This is why Tenet moved, I think. And who knows if July 8th will hold? I wonder what this will do to the Russell Crowe film?”
The trades reported this morning that the the biggest chains — Regal, AMC and Cinemark — will begin phased re-openings on Friday, 7.10. The first two releases will be Crowe’s Unhinged and Sony’s The Broken Hearts Gallery. Disney’s Mulan (which I am making an absolute point of never, ever seeing) opens on 7.24 and then Tenet (originally set to premiere on Friday, 7.17) opens on Friday, 7.31.
Regal Cinemas will start the openings on 7.10, with all 541 sites humming by Friday, 7.24. AMC Theatres and Cinemark Theatres are more or less following suit.
Don’t let that headline fool you. HE will attend the all-media screening of Tenet in a hazmat suit, and will then attend a public screening because if I know Nolan, I’ll need at least two viewings to even begin to figure out the basics.