Christopher Nolan's "Tenet" has topped 280 million U.S. dollars worldwide, dominating a mild U.S. box office with 3.4 million dollars at 2,850 locations in its fourth weekend to go past 41 million dollars in four weeks.

The Warner Bros. tentpole, which carries a hefty 200 million dollar price tag, took in a weekend total of 19.2 million dollars worldwide in 58 markets, pushing its global total to 283.2 million dollars to date.

The Christopher Nolan's latest film, starring John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki and Dimple Kapadia, has earned a total of 41.2 million dollars in North America as of Sunday, according to studio figures collected by measurement firm Comscore.

The film follows a secret agent as he manipulates the flow of time to prevent World War III.

"Tenet" hit the big screen in over 70 countries worldwide starting on August 26 ahead of a U.S. release in select cities on September 3.

The time-traveling picture opened in the Chinese mainland on September 4 and has grossed 440 million yuan (around 64.48 million U.S. dollars) to date.

The past week also observed the epic film on China's war against Japanese aggression in WWII "The Eight Hundred," a drama set in Shanghai during the 1937 Japanese invasion, become the No. 1-grossing movie of 2020 worldwide, with a total of 2.91 billion yuan (428 million U.S. dollars) in revenue as of September 22 during its first month in cinemas.

North America market is 'as expected sleepy and uncertain'

"Tenet" is the first Hollywood major studio release to launch during the pandemic, and its smallish numbers underline the industry's challenge of attracting customers amid a worldwide health crisis.

Disney's "Mulan" – which isn't getting a theatrical release in the U.S. – grossed 3.4 million U.S. dollars in 20 markets to lift it to 64 million U.S. dollars worldwide. In its fifth weekend, "The New Mutants" raked in 2.5 million U.S. dollars worldwide, including 1.1 million U.S. dollars in the U.S.

The estimates were released three days after Disney postponed the release of a trio of fall blockbusters – Marvel's "Black Widow," Steven Spielberg's "West Side Story" and Kenneth Branagh's "Death on the Nile" – by several months. Those delays were the latest in a long line of titles pushed out of the summer and fall due to the coronavirus.

Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at Box Office Pro, said it's no surprise that the U.S. moviegoing business is subdued by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"This weekend is continuing what's now expected to become a trend of quieter weekends at the domestic box office in the early autumn weeks following numerous release delays since 'Tenet' opened," he added. 

"It's another good news, bad news scenario as 'Tenet' itself and other films are displaying stronger legs than typically seen in pre-pandemic times, but the volume of total business in the market is lacking due to modest consumer awareness, the absence of four-quad films, and no promotional engine usually driven by the Los Angeles and New York markets," said Robbins.

Currently, about 75 percent of U.S. markets are open but the key Los Angeles and New York markets remain closed along with most of the rest of California, North Carolina, Michigan, New Mexico, Seattle-Tacoma and Portland.

Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst with Comscore, estimated that only 58 percent of theaters are currently open in North America.

"The marketplace is as expected sleepy and uncertain," he added. "However, there is at least some encouraging news in the fact that where people have the option, film fans are heading to the movie theater while others are seeking out the big screen experience even in neighboring cities if their local multiplex is unavailable."

(With input from Reuters; Cover: A poster for Christopher Nolan's "Tenet" /Warner Bros.)