TENET

Tenet opened on 2020-09-03, at the height of the pandemic, into theaters that were closed, capacity-capped, or empty — the one tentpole asked to prove moviegoing still worked: “Released mid-pandemic (Sep 2020) as the industry's reopening test.” The returns were weak: $366M worldwide against a $205M budget, a ×1.8 return in a filmography where the neighboring films earn far more.

Tenet is built as a palindrome: “A temporal palindrome — the second half runs the first half's set pieces in reverse.” Every set piece encountered on the way out is re-entered on the way back, seen from the other side of a time-reversing turnstile — the plot is its own mirror image. Even the title obeys the scheme. The Academy gave it 2 nominations and 1 win for the craft machinery that made it legible.