Axios World: Hollywood's game of chicken — TikTok tumult — New gig for Israel's biggest pop star

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Axios World

By Shane Savitsky ·Aug 03, 2020

Happy Monday, and welcome back to Axios World.

Long time, no see! Dave graciously gave me the reins once again for this edition.
Today's spry 1,057 words (4 minutes) are coming to you from a very sunny (truly!) Philadelphia.
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1 big thing: Hollywood's international game of chicken

Illustration of film clapper with question marks

Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios

If all goes to plan, Christopher Nolan's thrice-delayed "Tenet" will be the first blockbuster to receive a proper worldwide theatrical release amid the coronavirus pandemic at the end of this month.

Why it matters: It'll be playing a $200 million game of chicken, hoping to prove that people across the globe are still willing to trek to theaters to see a splashy new movie.

The state of play: Warner Bros. will open "Tenet" in 70 countries, including China, the U.K., Canada and South Korea, on Aug. 26. But it won't see a U.S. release until a week later.

As the rest of the world begins to slowly reopen, Hollywood is eager to get rolling again as major releases have been on pause since the pandemic kicked off in March.
The current strategy for "Tenet" risks leaving much of the U.S. behind — and could leave a lot of cash on the table for its studio — especially since theaters still aren't open in the movie capitals of New York and Los Angeles.

The big picture: Releasing a major film internationally before it debuts in the U.S. is unusual, but it isn't unprecedented — although the current state of affairs sure is.

Marvel has long dropped its movies early internationally, with its president, Kevin Feige, citing increased buzz from box office success as a major benefit, per CinemaBlend.
Trying to use an international release for "Tenet" to hype American moviegoers might not work the same way, as the U.S. outbreak is significantly worse than in other developed countries.
Even with masks, the crowded, enclosed confines of a movie theater — especially during the movie's two-and-a-half-hour run time — are precisely what health experts say people should avoid. That could put off older patrons, assuming theaters are open at all.

Between the lines: All of this is happening because Nolan is an avowed cinephile who only wants his creation on the big screen, rather than a release that would allow people to watch it at home on demand.

Because "Tenet" had already been delayed indefinitely in July before getting put back on the release calendar, there's a chance that all of this is a trial balloon — and the movie might not actually see the light of day until 2021.

The bottom line: Per an IndieWire report, the movie's breakeven point is $800 million. That's a huge sum for a blockbuster to rake in during the best of times — and it's more than the total worldwide grosses of his last two movies "Interstellar" ($690 million) and "Dunkirk" ($525 million).

2. Massive Afghanistan attack

Afghan soldiers arrive at the prison in Jalalabad. Photo: Noorullah Shirzada/AFP via Getty Images

An Islamic State attack on a prison in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, turned into a nearly daylong gun battle that saw more than 1,000 Islamic State and Taliban prisoners escape, report the New York Times' Zabihullah Ghazi and Mujib Mashal.

The attack, which started with a car bomb before morphing into an ongoing battle with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, left at least 21 people dead and 43 people wounded.
It came at the tail end of a three-day ceasefire between the Afghan government and the Taliban, coinciding with the Eid al-Adha holiday.

Why it matters: It showcases the Islamic State's potential to act as a spoiler in the ongoing peace process between the Afghan government and the Taliban.

The government has long claimed that the Islamic State and the Taliban can share resources and overlap, though the Taliban denied any responsibility in this attack.

3. A TikTok tick-tock

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

Over the weekend, the Trump administration's heat on Chinese-owned TikTok ratcheted up — with President Trump threatening to ban the app in the U.S. before news emerged that Microsoft was deep in acquisition talks for its American operations.

This afternoon, Trump set a sale deadline of Sept. 15 and said "a very substantial portion of [its] price is going to have to come into the Treasury of the United States because we're making it possible for this to happen."

The state of play: Gen Z campaign pranks notwithstanding, the administration says the app could be a Chinese vacuum for coveted American data.

Between the lines, via Axios' Dan Primack: It is abnormal for a president to dictate the timeline (and maybe terms) of a U.S. company-led acquisition.

"It's less about this particular app and more about what this app can be used to leverage in the future," meaning new apps and possibly the collection of more sensitive data, a source familiar with the process tells Axios' Ashley Gold.
Microsoft will still need to prove to U.S. regulators and TikTok's current Chinese owner ByteDance that it can basically re-engineer the app's code, since the White House effectively wants new software in addition to a new mailing address.

Go deeper:

TikTok is China's next big weapon
"Axios Re:Cap" podcast: White House adviser Peter Navarro talks TikTok (listen)

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4. Coronavirus strikes worldwide

An empty street in Melbourne, which faces a nightly curfew due its ongoing coronavirus surge. Photo: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

Dave told you last week about how the coronavirus is bouncing back in places around the world that had previously knocked it out — and that trend has only deepened.

Norway: At least 41 people tested positive on a cruise ship, and there are fears that those disembarking could have spread it in dozens of towns along the country's coast.
Australia: The state of Victoria enacted a "state of disaster," with a strict new lockdown in Melbourne, the country's second-largest city.
U.K.: England paused its reopening and expanded the mandatory use of face masks as its chief medical officer warned it had "reached the limits" of reopening.
Vietnam: After shutting down community transmission for over three months, it now has six recorded coronavirus deaths after recording its first last week, per the BBC.

5. Remembering John Hume, 83

John Hume (R) stands with David Trimble (L), with whom he shared the Nobel Peace Prize, and U2 singer Bono at a 2001 concert in Belfast to promote the Northern Ireland peace initiative. Photo: Chris Bacon/PA Images via Getty Images

Northern Irish politician John Hume, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his key role in negotiating 1998's Good Friday Agreement to end the Troubles, died at 83 after a long illness.

Why he matters, via The Guardian: "Driven by an acute understanding of history and a belief in 'an agreed Ireland,' Hume envisaged an idyllic state in which everyone, both northerners and southerners, 'reached an accommodation as to how we share this piece of earth.'"

Tributes from both sides of the Atlantic, per the BBC:

Tony Blair said Hume was "a visionary who refused to believe the future had to be the same as the past. ... He was insistent [peace] was possible, tireless in pursuit of it and endlessly creative in seeking ways of making it happen."
Bill Clinton: "His chosen weapons: an unshakeable commitment to nonviolence, persistence, kindness and love. With his enduring sense of honor, he kept marching on against all odds towards a brighter future for all the children of Northern Ireland."

6. Israel's biggest pop star has a new gig

Noa Kirel at the 2019 MTV European Music Awards. Photo: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic via Getty Images

The Washington Post's Ruth Eglash had a great feature over the weekend highlighting the Israeli army's difficulty fitting the nation's biggest pop star, 19-year-old Noa Kirel, into its ranks.

Kirel, who first made it big via YouTube at age 14, entered the army earlier this year under Israel's mandatory conscription law.
"For the foreseeable future, every media interview, every public appearance, every television taping and photo shoot must be strictly coordinated with the Israeli army."

"I felt that because I was famous I had to serve to set an example to others. I know people abroad will probably not understand this, not understand why I have put everything on hold, but it was clear to me that I had to do this," she told the Post.