I was being a little flippant, but long and the short of it: Nolan demanded that his mastapeece be shown on the big screen in the middle of a pandemic, and it was probably the largest film to actually make it to cinemas last year. The fact that cinemas were partially closed, that audiences weren't too keen to go out, and that the film itself was kinda mediocre all combined to a poor box office. This lead directly to things like big movies like Bond and Dune getting further delayed, and Warner Bros to announce that all their films will be getting simultaneous digital release on HBO Max - which then lead to things like Denis Villeneuve to write an open letter decrying the death of cinema.
Granted, this was the direction things were heading anyways, and it mostly affects blockbusters and corporate multiplexes that stake their business in wide scale releases. But in any case, a A-list director's pet project bombing didn't help the ongoing conversations about the slow death of theatres.
I was being a little flippant, but long and the short of it: Nolan demanded that his mastapeece be shown on the big screen in the middle of a pandemic, and it was probably the largest film to actually make it to cinemas last year. The fact that cinemas were partially closed, that audiences weren't too keen to go out, and that the film itself was kinda mediocre all combined to a poor box office. This lead directly to things like big movies like Bond and Dune getting further delayed, and Warner Bros to announce that all their films will be getting simultaneous digital release on HBO Max - which then lead to things like Denis Villeneuve to write an open letter decrying the death of cinema.
Granted, this was the direction things were heading anyways, and it mostly affects blockbusters and corporate multiplexes that stake their business in wide scale releases. But in any case, a A-list director's pet project bombing didn't help the ongoing conversations about the slow death of theatres.