Here’s some possible good news for Warner Bros. and it’s dumb/annoyingly smart “everyone’s going to see Tenet in a theater whether they like it or not” strategy: It might have even less box office competition than we thought. Warner Bros.’ plan, as we’ve noted every day this week, is to keep Tenet in theaters for as long as possible, letting it gradually make money as more theaters around the country reopen rather than collecting what it can in one or two weeks like a normal movie. The key aspect of this plan is that Tenet’s only major competition for the foreseeable future is Black Widow on November 6 and No Time To Die on November 20, so if people want to see a movie in theaters that’s “worth” risking their lives for, it’s nothing but Tenet for months.
According to Variety, though, Disney is about to pull the trigger on another Black Widow delay (it was originally supposed to come out in May, before the virus and Donald Trump’s egregious mishandling of it took over our lives). That would mean it’s clear sailing for Tenet until the end of November, when the Bond-pastiche would have to deal with an actual Bond movie, assuming Warner Bros. really does keep it in theaters for several months—and there’s no reason not to, since it’s the first movie in history that humans are physically incapable of seeing in any other format apparently.
A Black Widow delay isn’t the only potential move that Disney is considering, either. Variety says Pixar’s Soul also probably won’t meet its November 20 release date, and “the studio is even considering releasing it on Disney+.” An “insider” says that’s not the case, but either way it would probably depend on how the pricey Mulan deal is going. Then again, Disney’s certainly not going to tell anyone how that Mulan deal is going, and it would be pretty obvious that it was a flop if it never does something like that again, so really the smart move is to charge $30 for a “premium” Disney+ version of Soul whether it’s a good idea or not. Then everyone will at least think it was a good idea.