‘Tenet’ Delayed Indefinitely by Warner Bros. Amid Coronavirus Concerns

Tenet (Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures)

Tenet — which was supposed to kick off the movie industry’s long-awaited return to theaters — has been delayed for a third time, Warner Bros. said Monday.

The Christopher Nolan blockbuster was originally slated to open on July 17. Then it was pushed to July 31 because of concerns about the coronavirus pandemic and movie theater closures. Warner Bros. delayed the film again until Aug. 12. Now it has been pushed indefinitely.

“Our goals throughout this process have been to ensure the highest odds of success for our films while also being ready to support our theater partners with new content as soon as they could safely reopen,” Warner Bros. Pictures Group chairman Toby Emmerich said in a statement Monday to The Hollywood Reporter.

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Emmerich added that the studio will share “a new 2020 release date imminently.”

“We are not treating Tenet like a traditional global day-and-date release, and our upcoming marketing and distribution plans will reflect that,” he said.

The studio boss also announced that The Conjuring 3 is being pushed to June 4, 2021, and won’t arrive in theaters as planned on Sept. 11.

Tenet stars John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Michael Caine, Kenneth Branagh, Elizabeth Debicki, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson.

The international espionage thriller has a reported budget of about $200 million, making it one of the most expensive original movies ever made.