Academy Award nominated director Christopher Nolan is certainly no stranger to big budget films. The budgets on his movies consistently run over $100 million. In fact you have to go as far back as 2006's THE PRESTIGE, starring Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale, to find a film under the $100 million mark. Nolan's certainly come a long way since his first film FOLLOWING, which only cost $6000 to make.
Christopher Nolan's upcoming film TENET however, will not fall into the FOLLOWING category in terms of cost. In fact TENET will cost over 33,000 times more than Nolan's debut feature. Reports are coming in that Nolan's latest movie, set within the high-stakes world of industrial espionage, will cost a whopping $205 million. This doesn't even take into account the marketing campaign. That alone will likely run the production an additional $100 million or more. Despite the hefty cost of TENET, the film will not be Nolan's costliest. That title still belongs to 2012's THE DARK KNIGHT rises, whose budget was northwards of $250 million.
What's intriguing about Nolan is that his big budget properties are truly outliers. Aside from the Dark Knight trilogy, Christopher Nolan's made it a habit of making original successful box office hits not based on well established IPs. INCEPTION, INTERSTELLAR, and DUNKIRK all tripled their budgets at the box office. This is something virtually unheard of in an era where IPs like Marvel, Star Wars, and DC rule the day. Nolan holds the distinction of being one of the few directors whose films people legitimately get excited for. The director always brings something unique and fresh to the table. It's what keeps audiences coming back for more. I have zero clue what TENET is going to be about but I am all in for one reason – Christopher Nolan.
TENET starring John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Michael Caine, Elizabeth Debicki, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson hits theaters July 17, 2020.