Weekend Box Office Report: It’s still Tenet all the time!

Tenet backwards and forwards!

The sci-fi thriller TENET continues trying to make the best of a bad situtation, once again taking the top spot at the box office for a third weekend with an estimated $4.7 million.

Filmmaker Christopher Nolan's latest cerebral effort has managed to scrounge up a domestic total of $36.1 million since it first started on Canadian screens in late August (it's currently on 2900 screens in North America).

The PG-13 Warner Bros. release with John David Washington, Robert Pattinson and Elizabeth Debicki is still doing solid business overseas, now at $210 million from international audiences (which includes $60.7 million from China) for a worldwide total of $250 million.

Theaters might be opening around the globe (with all that the ongoing COVID-19 reality entails) but there aren't many options to show, and it doesn't seem like Nolan's $200 million time-bending spectacle will have any significant competition for quite some time — the sequel WONDER WOMAN 1984 already vacated its October 2nd spot in favor of a (theoretical) Christmas Day release.

In addition, Sony yanked its animated family comedy CONNECTED from October 23 to an undisclosed date. Recent rumors claim that Disney could delay Marvel's BLACK WIDOW from November 6, and supposedly has even considered giving Pixar's animated feature SOUL on the VOD route.

If all of that comes to pass, Daniel Craig's final appearance as 007 could be the next major wide release attempting to lure audiences to the theatrical experience in large numbers… assuming NO TIME TO DIE holds on to its November 20 date. Before then, the only other possible options with notable names are the Liam Neeson crime drama HONEST THIEF on October 9, and Kenneth Branagh's next Agatha Christie mystery DEATH ON THE NILE on October 23.

In second place again at the domestic box office was the horror-tinted mutant movie THE NEW MUTANTS with $1.6 million. After four weekends, the PG-13 Disney release of Fox's last X-MEN spinoff has a domestic total of $17.7 million and $35 million worldwide.

Opening in third place was the new political thriller INFIDEL with $1.5 million. Produced by right-wing conspiracy theorist Dinesh D'Souza, the "inspired by true events" story with Jim Caviezel as a kidnapped journalist was released onto 1700 screens.

The R-rated road-rage thriller UNHINGED was in fourth place with $1.3 million. Russell Crowe has been angrily motoring around theaters and drive-ins for six weekends now, and has collected a domestic total of $15.7 million.

The romantic comedy THE BROKEN HEARTS GALLERY was in fifth place with $800,000 on its second weekend on 2200 screens. The PG-13 Sony release with Dacre Montgomery and Geraldine Viswanathan has a ten-day domestic total of $2.4 million.

The remaining domestic box office scraps were divided up between the teen melodrama AFTER WE COLLIDED (currently only on Canadian screens in North America but smashing past $30 million overseas), along with THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SPONGE ON THE RUN (also in Canada only), BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC and THE PERSONAL LIFE OF DAVID COPPERFIELD.

Disney's live-action update of MULAN might have been a successful experiment with its extra-cost Disney+ streaming release, but the movie hasn't made much of an impact in China — the remake dropped by 72% in its second weekend there for a $36.2 million total. It appears that nothing can get in the way of the IMAX-shot war epic THE EIGHT HUNDRED, which has generated $420 million in that country.

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