Normally, I tend to focus on doing my Best lists and reviews on this site, I do talk about the occasional news tidbits. As everybody well knows, 2020 has been a very difficult year with the COVID-19 pandemic raging around the world with over 600,000 dead and counting, with millions more being infected. Unfortunately, I happen to be one of those infected. Thankfully, it’s a relatively minor case, but it still hit like a sledgehammer. I’m doing much better, so y’all can rest easy. Just make sure to take the necessary precautions when you go out. What I wanted to discuss today is Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, an upcoming action/thriller that was supposed to be released on July 17th. Unfortunately, because of the pandemic, the film got pushed back to August 12. Well, accord to Variety, Tenet has been removed from the release schedule “indefinitely.” There’s possibly a huge reason why this happened: China. Recently, China allowed movie theaters to re-open with the stipulation that they could show movies that were 2 hours long or shorter. Their reason being that while entering the theater isn’t necessarily that risky with the virus, the longer you are in the theater, the more likely you are to contract the disease. China is the second largest market for movies in the world, so having this kind of restriction is going to be problematic for a lot of films that make a lot of money in China. Christopher Nolan’s films like Batman Begins and Interstellar have had strong showings in China, so it is important for his movies to be released over there. Some people would argue that Nolan should edit his film down to a 2-hour runtime to get it into theaters over there. Here’s the problem with that: Christopher Nolan has a lot of direct control over how his movies are made and he has a specific vision for how his movies should be, regardless of length. For him to edit down Tenet to make to the Chinese market right now is unthinkable and pointless. He doesn’t want to compromise the film’s story-telling because of some country’s restrictions. I think because of that, Tenet was pulled.
Now, “indefinitely” doesn’t necessarily mean “permanently.” What that means is that the film gets pulled until the film-makers and theater owners find a reasonable time-line in which to release the film. Make no mistake about it, COVID-19 has proven catastrophic for the film industry, forcing theaters to close down for months. Some of these theaters are not going to survive, that much is clear. In fact, it’s been predicted that 40 percent of China’s theaters are going to close down permanently. AMC, one of the world’s largest theater chains, has expressed doubts about their own survival. There have been rumors that movie theaters might be closed until mid-2021. I have doubts about that, but it is a distinct possibility. If it is true, then it will truly cataclysmic for the film industry. These movie studios need movie theaters to operate, because that’s where they make their money. If there are no theaters operating, these studios are not only not making money, they’re losing it. The good news is that we are starting to see some movie theaters opening up with restrictions about how many people can be in a theater with social distancing and mask-wearing measures in place. These theaters have opted to start playing older movies in a way to get people back into theaters. It’s not without its risks, but something needs to happen. The film industry is extremely important to the overall economy and as long as theaters remain closed, the damage to the economy, both national and global, is going to be severe. Movie studios will end up closing as well as some large theater chains. So what about VOD or video-on-demand? It’s not a good option, because like I said, the money that the studios make comes from the movie theaters. They don’t see that kind of money on VOD, when you rent one movie for a single price and invite friends and family over to watch it. Movie studios lose a lot of money because of that. That is why you won’t see movies like Tenet or Wonder Woman ’84 on VOD until well after their theatrical release.
Tenet is not the only film to be affected by this pandemic. Wonder Woman, Mulan, and No Time To Die have all been delayed. No Time To Die has been pushed back a full year. I haven’t been to the theaters since Underwater came out in January. Do I want to go back to the theaters? Hell, yeah, I do. I miss it. But the reality is that as long as people are refusing to do any social distancing or wearing masks, especially here in the United States, the less likely we’re able to get back into theaters. Understand this: Things have changed. Permanently. We will NEVER go back to the way things were before the pandemic, and we shouldn’t. Things are going to be very different moving forward. It is up to us as citizens of the world to be responsible in how we deal with this situation. We all need to our part to prevent this thing from spreading and that means making sacrifices. I know people don’t want to wear masks. I certainly don’t, but it’s one of the best ways, along with social distancing to keep the coronavirus from becoming more of a problem than it currently is. People don’t seem to think that it’s a huge problem. 600,000 dead bodies and millions of sick people would like to have a word with you. It is also up to us to be responsible, because it is clear that certain government entities are either unable or unwilling to take this thing seriously. It falls on us to keep this thing from spreading, and if you refuse to do so, then you are part of the problem. Don’t be a part of the problem. Be a part of the solution. It’s going to take ALL of us to be responsible in order to get back to some kind of normalcy. You want movies to come back to theaters? Wear masks and socially distance yourselves from others. It’s that simple. I know I’ve repeated myself quite a bit in this post, but I don’t think I can emphasize how important it is to be smart and responsible now. Am I asking too much of people? I personally don’t think so, as I know there are people out there that ARE being responsible. But I also know that there are people out there are who don’t believe this thing exists and don’t like being told what to do. There is only so much that I can do as a person, but I hope that you, my readers, take this pandemic seriously. I’m looking forward to seeing Tenet in theaters when it is released. There are a lot of films that I’m looking forward to seeing. If nothing else, 2021 is going to be an epic year for movies, if we get this situation under control. So, please do your part so we can get back to our favorite hobby.