Christopher Nolan’s ‘Tenet’ returns to theaters, in IMAX 70mm, with new ‘Dune: Part Two’ footage

Time isn’t inverting: Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” is coming back to movie theaters for a week in IMAX 70mm and on other large-format screens.

The limited re-release of Nolan’s mind-bender starring John David Washington will begin on Feb. 23, Warner Bros. Discovery said Thursday. The showings will also feature new footage from Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Two,” which opens a week later on March 1. Tickets for the special showings are on sale Thursday.

“Seeing the way audiences responded to our large format presentations of ‘Oppenheimer,’ I’m thrilled that Warner Bros. is giving audiences a chance to see ‘Tenet’ the way it was intended to be seen, on the largest IMAX and large format film screens,” Nolan said in a statement. “I’m honored to have our movie warm up the film projectors for Denis’ jaw-dropping ‘Dune: Part Two.’”

“Oppenheimer,” which was recently nominated for 13 Oscars, made nearly $1 billion at the global box office, with a special emphasis on large-format presentations like IMAX 70mm and 70mm. “Tenet” was also filmed entirely on large-format film stock, but never got its full due on the big screen. It was the first major Hollywood film to open in theaters during the pandemic, in September 2020, at a time when cinemas in Los Angeles and New York were still closed and others were operating at limited capacity.

After “Tenet” was released, Warner Bros. made the controversial decision to release all of its 2021 films simultaneously in theaters and on its streaming service, including “Dune.” The move was widely criticized by top filmmakers, including Villeneuve and Nolan, who took his next film, “Oppenheimer,” to Universal.

Both champions of the big screen experience, Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Two,” which was delayed from its original 2023 date to a March release amid the dual Hollywood strikes, was also made with large format presentation in mind.

“On ‘Dune,’ we shot several sequences for IMAX, and I simply loved it, so for ‘Dune: Part Two,’ we pushed it to 100 percent of the movie,” Villeneuve said in a statement. “Working with the IMAX format was the only way to capture the experience of Arrakis, Giedi Prime and the Imperium for audiences.”

Theaters showing “Tenet,” and the “Dune: Part Two” footage, in IMAX 70mm include AMC Lincoln Square in New York, Universal CityWalk IMAX and TCL Chinese IMAX in Los Angeles, and AMC Metreon in San Francisco.

“I am just as eager to see ‘Tenet’ again, but now in 70mm IMAX, the way they filmed it, to fully appreciate his vision for this incredible film,” Villeneuve added.