Weekend Box Office Report: It’s finally time for Tenet in theaters!

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Christopher Nolan brings business!

One of the year's most anticipated movies made it to North American theaters this weekend, and moviegoers were clearly prepared to contend with the new theatrical COVID-19 safety protocols (or just headed to a drive-in) as TENET took off with an estimated $20.2 million!

After being pushed from its long-planned July 17 opening, filmmaker Christopher Nolan's new thriller arrived at last on 2800 screens in North America (not including some major cities like New York and Los Angeles, which are still locked down). The movie will slowly expand further as cinema availability and safety allows (its current domestic figure includes a modest rollout in Canada last week).

While that amount is far less than the $80-$90 million that TENET probably would've opened with under ideal summer circumstances, it's an impressive figure given the pandemic situation — particularly for Labor Day weekend, traditionally one of the slowest box office periods of the year. Studios typically don't even bother releasing anything new for the holiday weekend (for example, last year's Labor Day winner was the Gerard Butler action-thriller ANGEL HAS FALLEN with $11.5 million on its second weekend in theaters).

The top-secret Warner Bros. release already started its time-twisting operations in other parts of the globe last weekend, and is already approaching a worldwide box office total of $150 million.

The PG-13 sci-fi espionage story, with John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Kenneth Branagh and (of course) Michael Caine, cost a reported $200 million.

Critics seem to be a combination of baffled and dazzled by Nolan's latest, which currently holds an average of 74% average on Rotten Tomatoes and a score of 69 on Metacritic. Flip on over to the JoBlo review HERE.

After a far, far longer delay before its premiere last weekend, THE NEW MUTANTS were in second place with $2.8 million, a drop of 59% from its starting point.

Released by Disney after it devoured Fox, the PG-13 X-MEN spinoff from director Josh Boone has a ten-day domestic total of $11.6 million and around $14.4 million worldwide, on a reported cost of $67 million (but rumored to be as high as $80 million).

Russell Crowe continues angrily cruising around the country with UNHINGED, now on 2400 North American screens for $1.6 million over the weekend and a domestic total of $11.3 million.

The R-rated road rage thriller, which tested the waters of theatrical viability when it started the engines four weeks ago, currently has a worldwide total of $19 million (on a reported cost of $33 million).

The return of our favorite goofball rockers made another $610,000 this weekend with BILL & TED FACE THE MUSIC. The PG-13 comedy sequel with Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter now has around $2.2 million from theaters at the same time it's ruling most major VOD charts.

Elsewhere in theaters, the Dickens adaptation THE PERSONAL LIFE OF DAVID COPPERFIELD collected another $361,000, the animated THE SPONGEBOB MOVIE: SPONGE ON THE RUN gabbed another $345,000 from its Canada-only run, and the PG-13 teen melodrama WORDS ON BATHROOM WALLS pulled in an additional $282,000 over the weekend.

While no box office figures are currently available, the 2013 biopic of baseball hero Jackie Robinson 42 was also re-released this weekend in honor of the tragic recent passing of star Chadwick Boseman.

Although it's skipping theaters in North America, Disney's PG-13 remake of MULAN opened in a handful of international territories for $5.9 million over the weekend.

Directed by Niki Caro (WHALE RIDER), the $200 million live-action update of the 1998 animated feature went directly to the Mouse House's streaming platform Disney+ on September 4 (at an additional premium cost).

At the moment there aren't any major big-budget releases on the immediate horizon (Matthew Vaughn's KINGSMAN prequel THE KING'S MAN flinched from its September 18 release to next February), but the defibrillating performance of TENET should have the studios and theaters feeling cautiously confident about the current plans for WONDER WOMAN 1984 (October 2), CANDYMAN (October 16), DEATH ON THE NILE (October 23) and BLACK WIDOW (November 6).

The Gerard Butler apocalypse thriller GREENLAND is currently on the calendar for a North American release on September 25.

What is your favorite movie directed by Christopher Nolan? VOTE HERE!