Run-time revealed for Christopher Nolan's 'Tenet'

Tenet, Christopher Nolan's new cerebral action movie and the film its hoped will revive cinema-going post-pandemic, has had its sturdy runtime confirmed.

Coming via the Korea Media Ratings Board (and The Independent), rather than the Warner Bros studio, the duration will be a solid 149 minutes and 59 seconds – a smidge under two-and-a-half hours.

And while that's a decent amount of time to be sitting in the multiplex, it's not his lengthiest outing.

Streaks ahead was 2014's sci-fi epic Interstellar, which weighed in at two hours and 49 minutes, with his The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises coming in at two hours 32 minutes, and two hours 44 minutes respectively.

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When we will see the movie, starring John David Washington and Robert Pattinson, however, remains to be seen – a situation completely unheard of in the usual build-up to a blockbuster release.

The pandemic has meant that its original release date of 17 July was kiboshed by the worldwide coronavirus lockdown.

It was – ambitiously – initially delayed until 31 July, and then shunted to 12 August, where it currently remains.

This could work with UK cinemas, which are already beginning to re-open, with the major chains like Odeon and Vue set to be fully operational – with social distancing measures – by the end of the month.

However, in the US, lockdowns are still an issue, with the governor of California this week closing cinemas again after a regional spike in COVID-19 cases.

On the opposite coast, authorities in the state of New Jersey denied a request by cinema operators including AMC and Regal to open up for the summer.

A judge in Trenton rejected the request, made by the National Association of Theater owners yesterday.

Speaking to Variety, movie business analysts have predicted a further delay.