‘Tenet’ Has Reversed Course And Will Start Playing Los Angeles Drive-Ins After All

One great thing about living in New York City and Los Angeles is the unprecedented access to movies. Or at least that used to be the case, in the before-time. Movie theaters have been closed since March, and even with restrictions loosening, they aren’t among the places coming back any time soon. That means things have reversed: right now, NYC and LA are among the only places in the nation where you can’t see Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, which opened in the U.S. on August 31 but with one restriction. It can’t play at drive-ins, at least in locations where it isn’t also playing in theaters.

But now there’s some flip-flopping going on, at least in Los Angeles. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. (and presumably Nolan, who’s been adamant about it being seen in a giant movie theater) have given the green-light for LA drive-ins to play his latest super-sized brainteaser, even though theaters remain, wisely, closed.

Tenet’s box-office haul last weekend was Nolan’s lowest opening tally since 2002’s Insomnia. But of course: Movie theaters are operating at severely reduced capacity, and a great number of people are still wary of sitting in enclosed spaces with strangers. But since drive-ins are incredibly pandemic-friendly, at least Los Angelinos — who, unlike New Yorkers, live in a car-friendly metropolis — can finally see the movie the rest of the country already can.