Australian audiences may be among the first in the world getting to see Christopher Nolan’s much anticipated blockbuster “Tenet.”
Warner-affiliated distributor Village Roadshow has confirmed that paid preview screenings of “Tenet” will go ahead in all but one state during the weekend of Saturday Aug. 22 and Sunday Aug. 23. The film’s official local release in Australia is on Aug. 27.
The Wanda-owned Hoyts chain confirmed that it will be one of the circuits holding advance previews from next weekend. Tickets go on sale from Friday. In the U.K. they are already available.
One Australian state is certain to miss out on the festivities. Victoria, which includes the country’s second most populous city, Melbourne, is currently in a state of lockdown after a recent flare-up in coronavirus cases. The state government announced a state of disaster on Aug. 2.
With the exception of Victoria, Australian cinemas are only slowly heading back to normal. Consulting firm, Gower Street Analytics said that last week Australian cinemas accounting for 67% of box office capacity were open and functioning.
The federal government ordered all traditional Australian cinemas to close from March 23 and started to allow some re-openings from mid-June. In between, box office was only sustained by drive-in cinemas.
Weekly box office climbed to a weekly plateau of around $1.75 million, before dropping back to $1.35 million by July 23-26. For the past two weekends, the chart has been headed by Russell Crowe-starring “Unhinged,” which has now managed a cumulative of $1.24 million.
The release of “Tenet” is expected to be a major boon for movie theaters around the world. See “Tenet’s” global release plan below:
Wednesday, Aug. 26:
Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Holland, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Italy, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, U.K.
Thursday, Aug. 27:
Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Israel, Lebanon, Malaysia, Middle East, New Zealand, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates
Friday, Aug. 28:
East Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Norway, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Vietnam
Wednesday, Sept. 3:
U.S., Kuwait and Qatar
Thursday, Sept. 10:
Azerbaijan, CIS, Kazakhstan, Russia
Thursday, Sept. 17:
Cyprus
Friday, Sept. 18:
Japan
Dates TBD:
Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, South Africa, Uruguay, Venezuela