Theater Counts: Tenet Officially Arrives in (Maybe) Close to 3,000 Theaters

September 3, 2020

Christopher Nolan’s long-awaited $224-million-budgeted thriller, Tenet, finally makes its official U.S. debut today, after “Early Access” screenings in the US from Monday to Wednesday, and playing in Canada since last weekend. Warner Bros has not given an official theater count, but estimates range from 2,800 to 3,000. The New Mutants, Unhinged, and The Personal History of David Copperfield all add to their counts from last weekend, thanks in part to the reopening of theaters in New Jersey and Maryland.

The industry’s two anchor markets, Los Angeles and New York, remain closed for now, as do theaters in New Mexico and North Carolina. Other states still have restrictions in some cities, and the theater chains are all operating under new protocols, which will limit the number of patrons in each screening. Compensating for that fact, Tenet can play on lots of screens in some theaters, thanks to the relative lack of competition. To take one random example, it appears to be playing on 10 screens at the AMC River East 21 in Chicago (that’s assuming 30 minutes between shows on each screen). That adds up to a lot of available seats, even at 25% or 50% capacity.

Warner Bros. has not given any guidance on how it’ll report domestic numbers this weekend, so we don’t know exactly how this unusual opening will translate into official box office numbers (and they may choose not to report at all). Our prediction is for $35 million at the box office by the end of Monday, and we’ll report anything that comes in between now and then. In the meantime, here are the official (and one unofficial) theater counts…