Black Widow’s Release Will Be Delayed to 2021 Instead of Nov 2020 All Thanks to Tenet

With Mulan and Tenet being in cinemas now (at least, in Singapore cinema), you’d have thought that the highly anticipated Black Widow, the first movie in Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase Four, would be out as scheduled on 6 November 2020.

But it’s precisely because of movies like Mulan and Tenet that’s led Disney to delay the release of Black Widow to 7 May 2021—a whopping six months later.

And here’s why.

Black Widow Will Be Released Next in 2021 Instead of Nov 2020

The obvious reason given was of course due to COVID-19.

The movie was initially scheduled to be released on 1 May 2020, but as you’d have known, almost the entire world except Sweden and China closed. They then rescheduled Black Widow to 6 November 2020, which means we’d have at least one MCU movie this year.

But no; that has been confirmed to be delayed as well, which means this would be the first time since 2010 that we’d go through a calendar year without an MCU movie.

But with some cinemas reopening, why’ve they made such a drastic decision?

After all, a delay in Black Widow would mean a delay in all the MCU movies in Phase Four: for example, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will be released on 9 July 2021 instead of 7 May 2021.

It’s all due to Tenet.

Yes, Tenet, the movie that even caused a ventilation duct to drop in Singapore.

Tenet is a Christopher Nolan movie, and any movie by Christopher Nolan will be a blockbuster. Saying that Christopher Nolan’s movies would flop is akin to saying that Jay Chou’s albums won’t sell; that’s statistically impossible, no matter how bad the songs are.

But Tenet…flopped.

It’s the first tent-pole movie after cinemas partially reopened (Mulan wasn’t released in the US) and became the fourth highest-grossing movie of 2020…losing even to The Eight Hundred, a 2020 Chinese historical war drama film you probably haven’t heard of before because it got all its monies from China.

Tenet grossed USD$251 million out of its USD$200 million budget. This could mean a loss as the budget doesn’t include marketing budget.

For comparison’s sake, his last film, Dunkirk, grossed USD$529 million out of a USD$100 million budget. This film before that, Interstellar, grossed USD$696 million out of a USD$165 million.

Tenet has been getting positive reviews, which means the movie has now shown something: even if we screen Titanic now, the box office is still going to be disappointing because of COVID-19.

In the meantime, just remember this: any movies you’re now looking forward to are most likely to be delayed, all thanks to Tenet.

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