Tenet was supposed to be a Warner Bros. blockbuster for one of the hot mid-July weekends you might spend in a shopping mall cooling off. Summer is the best season for action movies in the U.S. Instead, this release ended up being the film industry’s canary in a coal mine. By the end of May 2020, the world was in a coronavirus lockdown, and movie theaters were shut. The studio moved the release date several times, finally making a groundbreaking decision to release overseas first. Never before has a major Hollywood studio opened a tentpole film abroad, weeks ahead of the U.S. debut.

The gutsy (and sensible) release strategy has paid off. To date, Tenet has made over $280 million in overseas markets, and at the time of this writing, it had begun slowly rolling out in selected U.S. markets. The film industry has been anxiously watching Tenet’s slow launch in the U.S., trying to test the waters of viewers’ eagerness to come back to theaters. The jury is still out, which is a shame considering that this is one of the most anticipated and accomplished movies of the year.

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