Christopher Nolan's Tenet is Getting a Second Chance in Theaters Thanks to Dune 2
“All I have for you is a word: Tenet.”
In 2024, lockdown re-releases are a new trend. After shunting many of its 2020 and 2021 releases to Disney+ with “Premier Access,” Disney is giving Soul, Luca, and Turning Red an actual theatrical release. But one of the first blockbusters to actually return to theaters is also getting a second shot — an unsurprising move once you consider the context. Here’s everything you need to know, including when you need to mark your calendars to catch the event yourself.
According to industry reporter Jeff Sneider, Christopher Nolan’s Tenet will return to IMAX theaters from February 23 to March 1 as a way to build hype for Dune: Part Two. Apparently, Nolan approached Warner Bros. with the idea, hopefully proving that the “Barbenheimer” feud he had with the studio is a thing of the past.
Tenet is getting a second chance at an IMAX release.
Tenet and Dune: Part One were both victims of pandemic-era releases, and now they both are getting IMAX re-releases, with Dune coming back to theaters on January 24 with a sneak peek of the sequel, and now Tenet taking the week leading up to Part Two.
It’s a win-win for Nolan and Warner Bros. Christopher Nolan has found huge amounts of success with keeping Oppenheimer in IMAX and 70mm even six months after the initial release, so giving his “one that got away” the same treatment will take advantage of that success. For Warner, it’s a way to remind viewers of the spectacle of IMAX showings — and boost Tenet’s box office numbers years after the fact.
After his opus Oppenheimer released alongside Warner Bros.’ Barbie, Nolan’s latest Warner Bros. movie is coming back to theaters.
But while this is a mutually beneficial decision, there’s no real precedent for something like this. Christopher Nolan proved that going to the theaters is an event with Oppenheimer. Now, he just needs to show that trekking to the theater for a film that’s been on Max since it was called HBO Max is worth it. If it works, maybe we’ll see the Nolan filmography become special events to lead up to new releases.
Who knows, maybe Joker: Folie à Deux y will be paired with The Dark Knight and Furiosa will release after Inception. But even if this is a one-off event, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime event to see Christopher Nolan’s time-twisting thriller the way it was meant to be seen.
