Christopher Nolan may have gotten his start with lower-budget, more intimate movies, but he isn’t in any rush to return to those types of smaller-scale dramas. With each and every film, Nolan’s productions have grown more expensive, with grand sets, large ensemble casts, and, of course, all the IMAX film stock he can get his hands on. It helps that Nolan’s movies do quite well at the box office, which makes studios all the more willing to throw money at whatever he wants to do.
While speaking with Time, Christopher Nolan explained why he will likely remain in the realm of large-scale movies. “I’m drawn to working at a large scale because I know how fragile the opportunity to marshal those resources is,” Nolan said. “I know that there are so many filmmakers out there in the world who would give their eye teeth to have the resources I put together, and I feel I have the responsibility to use them in the most productive and interesting way.” If they’re offering you all the toys, might as well make use of them. In contrast, some of Nolan’s favourite recent movies are smaller dramas, with the director singling out Aftersun and Past Lives for praise.
At $100 million, the budget of Oppenheimer was half that of his previous movie (Tenet), but it was still a lot for a movie consisting of “a lot of talking,” as Logan Paul would put it.
Speaking of Tenet, the sci-fi action thriller will be returning to theaters. The movie was the first major blockbuster to open during the pandemic, and as a result, didn’t gross quite what Nolan and the studio were hoping, just $365 million. The film will return to theaters, including 70mm IMAX screens, for one week only starting February 23rd. As an added incentive, the re-release will also include some exclusive footage from Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two. “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, “and I’m honored to have our movie warm up the film projectors for Denis’ jaw- dropping Dune: Part Two.“