Mulan & Tenet: the 2 biggest pandemic movie theater releases basically failed

Antiviral opening weekend... Not in a good way. Two blockbusters dropped this month and the turnout was... underwhelming. First came Warner Bros' much-hyped thriller "Tenet." AT&T's CEO (AT&T owns Warner Bros) had bravely insisted that Tenet would have a theatrical release. The Christopher Nolan mega-flick was delayed three times before dropping at US theaters on Labor Day Weekend. The result:

• Budget: Tenet cost $205M to produce, not including marketing costs. It needs to reach ~$400M in sales to break even.
• Earnings: Tenet made $9M during LDW. So far, it has made less than $30M in the US and ~$200M globally — a far cry from making up its costs.

Stream it?... Disney took a different approach with blockbuster "Mulan." Instead of debuting in US theaters, Disney released Mulan on Disney+ for $30 — good call, since Mulan's global theatrical release was an epic fail. On top of the pandemic, Mulan got hit with a boycott. It has brought in just $38M from theaters but it cost Disney ~$300M.

• Disney hasn't released the numbers, but according to a report "Mulan" made $33M from Disney+ on opening weekend. For reference: record-breaking "Trolls" made $95M within three weeks of dropping on Apple TV.
• One research firm is estimating that as many as 9M users purchased "Mulan," a $270M windfall for Mickey. But Disney has been tight-lipped, only saying that it was "very pleased."