Warner Bros. CEO Explains Why 'Tenet' Would Never Have Been Released Straight to PVOD

The highly anticipated movie Tenet is now playing in theaters across the country and the CEO of Warner Bros. is opening up about why the studio never considered releasing the movie straight to PVOD.

There have been many rumors claiming that director Christopher Nolan was controlling the studio’s decisions regarding the release of the film, but Warner Bros. CEO Ann Sarnoff says this is not exactly true.

“It’s overstated. Let me share with you the process that we went through. Right when COVID struck, we started looking at alternative ways to think about movie releases. On the Scoob! front, we decided to release it on PVOD. Families were sequestered together and wanted more content. We are very happy with the results. A few weeks later it debuted on HBO Max, where we were very happy with the results as well,” Ann told THR.

She continued, “On the Tenet front, we also had a finished movie, which we are very proud for people to see. As the summer unfolded, we started thinking about more innovative ways of releasing the movie. What if we didn’t put everything up front toward the opening weekend? Theaters were very upfront about saying they could give us three to four times as many screens as normal. So that started to change our thinking. We are happy with where we are. Some markets still aren’t open, but it is a marathon and not a sprint.”

Ann was asked if the studio ever considered putting the movie on PVOD. She said, “No. It is a remarkable, cinematic, beautiful film. It is so impactful. It is a movie meant for the big screen. I’m very proud of our approach. A lot of people are pushing stuff into next year. Tenet absolutely deserves to be seen in theaters.”

Tenet is already a hit overseas and is earning lots of money so far!