no fuckin shit https://twitter.com/IGN/status/1285261259898793984

i mean, good, it’s clearly not safe to put people in indoor movie theaters with AC recirculating air and anybody who wears a mask pulling it down to eat popcorn, but also, why on earth did they think that would be okay in august

did you know that warner bros had access to the same information everybody else does about indoor transmission and epidemiological spread when they rescheduled this movie’s release for august

in the early days of the pandemic it made sense to be like “how can you expect everybody in every business to also be an armchair epidemiologist,” but we are four months in now and at this point, you can and you should expect that

warner bros sent out a press release about tenet that included nine (9) “off the record” paragraphs, which is not how either press releases or going off-record work, and it has some wild shit in it about all of this

mostly they are complaining about how the media has been unfair to them, which they put in an email they sent to the media, that they told the media not to report on

"What we thought we knew 4 months ago, 2 months ago, and even 2 weeks ago has changed with recent developments. These factors have informed our decision. Would hope any coverage is balanced and mentions a number of these new factors.” (indoor transmission study is from April)

"It’s important that any reporting about Tenet reflects the unique circumstances surrounding its release”—this is presumably so film press doesn’t declare Tenet a flop when it is released during a pandemic, but also what reporter isn’t aware of these circumstances

this whole paragraph has a lot to unpack, but “journalists covering film should have a vested interest in the health of our business” is such an obvious given that they felt comfortable sending an “off the record” lecture to those journalists in a press release

“fair coverage should reflect that [the reporters covering the industry need us to succeed]” is a real weird and offensive thing to say out loud, even if it is also ultimately how a lot of film/sports/restaurant/etc press works in practice

“please don’t write that streaming is going to kill theaters”

buddy, it’s the pandemic that’s gonna kill theaters

"We would hope that continued coverage would give a fair voice to those who are trying to find innovative ways of reaching an audience in this unique environment”

the innovation is releasing the movie in places where theaters are open and not releasing it where they aren't

this bit is a classic: "the widely reported $800-million breakeven number that has been attached to this film is simply not accurate. Period. We will not discuss the financial specifics of the movie, but that number is hundreds of millions away from being accurate."

RT if you’re a reporter who’s ever had a source angrily insist off the record that your figures are wrong while steadfastly refusing to provide you with figures they say are right

anyway, PSA, “off the record” means both parties agreed in advance to keep something between them, you can not just send an unsolicited email to people and say that it is off the record, that the literal opposite of how that works