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The box office performance of #Tenet proves what any reasonable person with an ounce of objectivity already knew. It is too soon to rely exclusively on theatrical exhibition, particularly in North America. WB made a mistake and compounded it by refusing to distribute (thread)
Tenet at drive-in theaters in major U.S. markets where theaters remain closed.
Arguing that Tenet is doing well enough “under the circumstances” carries no weight when everyone was already aware of what the circumstances were, what those circumstances would continue to be,
Arguing that Tenet is doing well enough “under the circumstances” carries no weight when everyone was already aware of what the circumstances were, what those circumstances would continue to be,
and the fact that WB had other options.
Countries that sufficiently flattened their COVID-19 curve are seeing movie theaters bounce back. There are enough consumers in those markets who feel safe inside a movie theater. The U.S. isn’t one of those places. We already knew that.
Countries that sufficiently flattened their COVID-19 curve are seeing movie theaters bounce back. There are enough consumers in those markets who feel safe inside a movie theater. The U.S. isn’t one of those places. We already knew that.
We still know that. WB had access to at least as much information on the matter as all of us.
$20.2M is a poor result all on its own, but worse when factoring in the week’s worth of revenue from Canada that’s been rolled into Tenet’s “opening weekend” in North America.
$20.2M is a poor result all on its own, but worse when factoring in the week’s worth of revenue from Canada that’s been rolled into Tenet’s “opening weekend” in North America.
Sure, WB is playing the long game on this, but a “B” CinemaScore won’t help with that strategy. At best, that’s “okay” word-of-mouth from the audience that was the most desperate to see and enjoy the film on the big screen.
The international outlook is much better, even if it’s not powerful enough to compensate for the poor domestic performance. The lesson here is not that theaters are done, but that they should not be the exclusive distribution option in every market across the globe.
For those saying, “WB is still making more on Tenet than Disney is making on #Mulan 
,” have you done any math to support that? WB is reportedly getting 63% of all ticket sales from Tenet in North America. That means WB is getting $12.73M from this domestic “opening weekend.”
,” have you done any math to support that? WB is reportedly getting 63% of all ticket sales from Tenet in North America. That means WB is getting $12.73M from this domestic “opening weekend.”
Any way you look at it, Disney is keeping a larger share of revenue per transaction for Mulan than WB is keeping for Tenet. The in-app purchase option on third-party platforms means Disney is sharing some revenue, but we don’t know what the percentage is for each platform.
Apple’s standard rate is 30%, but does anyone think Disney has to settle for the standard rate?
Let’s just say Disney’s average revenue share per Mulan purchase is 80%, the same Universal got for Trolls World Tour.
Let’s just say Disney’s average revenue share per Mulan purchase is 80%, the same Universal got for Trolls World Tour.
It’s probably more than that considering that Disney is keeping all of the money from people who buy Mulan on the DIsney+ website, but let’s stick with 80% anyway. At that rate, Disney would need to secure 530,427 purchases of Premier Access for Mulan in the U.S. and Canada this
weekend in order to match WB's share of Tenet’s domestic opening. That's a small percentage of Disney+ subscribers.
Tenet will keep making money in North America beyond this weekend, but so will Mulan, and Disney will continue pocketing a larger revenue share per transaction.
Tenet will keep making money in North America beyond this weekend, but so will Mulan, and Disney will continue pocketing a larger revenue share per transaction.
The same is true internationally, only the gap in the revenue split will be even greater, as WB probably isn’t getting 63% of ticket sales in every market. Also, Mulan is going to play in some international markets, including China, which is the biggest market in the world at
this moment, and for the next several months, at least.
And we still haven’t factored in the recurring revenue Disney receives as people need to subscribe to Disney+ in order to purchase Premier Access for Mulan in the first place. We’ll just set that aside for now.
And we still haven’t factored in the recurring revenue Disney receives as people need to subscribe to Disney+ in order to purchase Premier Access for Mulan in the first place. We’ll just set that aside for now.
Warner Bros. may have said that they are “very pleased” with the results for Tenet, but they are not. How will we know for sure? WB will not employ the same strategy for #WW84. They’ll either delay the film or adopt their own combination of PVOD and theatrical distribution.
Any studio that wants to make the most money it can from its movies right now will need to respect that customers want/need different media consumption options, depending on where they live and current conditions relative to the pandemic.
For the rest of 2020 and likely beyond, a combined digital and theatrical distribution strategy is the best way forward.
