Lots! It made $363 million off a $200 million budget [1]. That's probably lower than the studio expected for such a big movie, but still a solid profit and especially good in today's post(?)-covid box office.
That figure is an estimate of the production budget only. In order to know the estimated gross profit, we'd have to have some sense of the promotional and distribution costs. For a tentpole like Tenet, those are usually pegged at pretty near the production budget. So, call it $400 million.
In other words, its pretty unlikely the theatrical run yielded a profit.
Warner Bros does not get all of the $363 million at the box office, the theatres takes their cut. For domestic gross it's said to be roughly 50/50 during a box office run, with the distributor (in this case WB) getting the most during the first week, and then the theatres get the most, for Foreign gross it's much less, with China only giving 20% of the box office to foreign distributors.
Also the $200 million production budget does not include promotion/advertising.
So it's very unlikely that Tenet made a profit at the box office, however there's streaming deals, physical media etc which can earn a pretty penny, particularly if something becomes a cult classic. Blade Runner and Starship Troopers were box office failures having has made lots of money afterwards.
A general rule of thumb is a movie needs to make back double its budget to recoup after-filming costs, like advertising, ect to start turning a profit. A $363 million return on a $200 million flick is not a good return.
Nolan took one for the team as a "first big post-lockdown blockbuster" opener and it didn't work amazingly. Lot of theaters were still closed, lot of people stayed home.
Did OK given the circumstances but it wasn't a big financial win.
I enjoyed it too. Tenet was released in the middle of 2020 though. I remember when I went to the theater to watch it I felt like I was doing something morally wrong.
I mostly liked it but I still think they did Starro dirty. Seriously, Starro typically takes on the entirety of the justice league by itself.
Suicide Squad can take on maybe 2 or 3 Justice League heroes at a time, at best, not the entire team's collective focus. They're just completely incomparable in terms of threat-level, size or scope.
It was my first time meeting Starro, and I was pleasantly surprised at how they managed to make a giant space starfish still seem like a feasible villain. If you'd told me that they fight a giant starfish that mind controls people with smaller starfish, I would've been bemused.
Starro is supposed to be closer to a Thanos-like figure. Yes, a giant starfish, but cunning and hyperintelligent. It's Starro the Conqueror because he has already conquered other galaxies and is coming for earth.
Space army, hyperspace travel / technology, in depth knowledge of the mysteries of the universe.
But yeah, a giant starfish
Looks can be decieving.
All the talk about sequels and creativity or lack thereof upthread made me remember- has anyone watched the WB movie Reminiscence that came out last year, also on HBO Max?
The trailer looked very promising, a nice sci-fi noir dealing with memory and identity, but the reviews for it have been horrid. So much for Hollywood trying new ideas.
