Earlier this month, Warner Bros. delayed the release date for Christopher Nolan’s Tenet to 31 July (or 30 July here in Malaysia). Now the latest circumstances have caused the studio to delay the movie yet again, this time to 12 August 2020.

This decision comes after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that movie theatres in his state would not be opening just yet. The exclusion of cinemas in New York City and Los Angeles (two of the country’s biggest movie markets) will mean a lot less revenue for Warner Bros.

In an official statement to Variety, Warner Bros. said:

“Warner Bros. is committed to bringing ‘Tenet’ to audiences in theaters, on the big screen, when exhibitors are ready and public health officials say it’s time.

In this moment what we need to be is flexible, and we are not treating this as a traditional movie release.

We are choosing to open the movie mid-week to allow audiences to discover the film in their own time, and we plan to play longer, over an extended play period far beyond the norm, to develop a very different yet successful release strategy.”

Now that Tenet has been delayed, Disney’s Mulan will be the first blockbuster movie release since the industry went into lockdown in March 2020. Malaysian cinemas are already confirmed to reopen on 1 July 2020, with movies like Digimon Adventure Last Evolution Kizuna releasing on the same day.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3pk_TBkihU&w=560&h=315]