‘Tenet’ To Have Early Access Screenings Stateside Starting Aug. 31 Where Theaters Are Open

Moviegoers will get the chance in select cities to see Christopher Nolan’s Tenet early, three days before its Thursday, Sept. 3 opening date. Warner Bros. is offering early access screenings on Aug. 31, Sept. 1 and Sept. 2.

The announcement was made today by Jeff Goldstein, President, Warner Bros. Pictures Domestic Distribution.

Goldstein said, “Warner Bros. is proud to support our partners in exhibition as they reopen their doors. And there could be no better film to welcome audiences back to a true big-screen experience than Tenet.”

The long anticipated Nolan movie which is expected to reopen major exhibition in the U.S. after a massive shutdown since mid-March due to the pandemic is beginning its theatrical rollout in Canada on Thursday, Aug. 27 before the U.S. Already the Great White North opened Nolan’s tenth anniversary rerelease of Inception last weekend. In regards to where Tenet will miss in its initial stateside swath, California remains up in the air in regard to when cinemas return as the state tries to gets its COVID-19 cases down. And yesterday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo left movie theaters in the lurch, deeming them higher risk and less essential, despite his call to reopen gyms on Aug. 24.

“I am sure there is a whole group people who say, ‘I cannot live without going to the movies.’ But on a relative risk scale, a movie theater is less essential and poses a high risk. It is congregant. It is one ventilation system. You are seated there for a long period of time,” said Cuomo. “Even if you are at 50% capacity with one or two seats between the two of you, this is a risk situation and … movie theaters are not that high on the list of essentials.”

This was a big blow to big exhibition as they were quite hopeful they could get NY cinemas open in time for Tenet over Labor Day weekend. More calamity today:  Judge Brian Martinotti upheld an order keeping movie theaters in New Jersey closed, after a motion for an injunction that was being sought by the National Association of Theatre Owners and six cinema chains.