The 10 Lowest-Grossing Christopher Nolan Movies, Ranked
Born in London, England in 1970, Christopher Nolan is a British-American film producer, screenwriter, and director with close to 30 years in the film industry. A few of the movies he's responsible for directing may ring a bell if you're into filmographies, such as Transendence (2013) starring Johnny Depp, Inception (2010) starring Leonardo DiCaprio as the lead actor, and the notorious Dark Knight Trilogy. However, like any success story worthy of recognition, Nolan's renown as a skilled Hollywood producer wasn't a genie-in-the-bottle wish to overnight success. He's experienced major upsets at the box office and knows what it's like to take a loss. Here are 10 of the lowest-grossing Christopher Nolan films he has even made.
10 Following
Christopher Nolan developed a passion for filmmaking at an early age, being influenced by the works of English film director Ridley Scott, who was responsible for the production of films like the 1968 science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey and the 1977 film Star Wars. Before the multi-billion success of The Batman Trilogy, Nolan's first film in 1998, Following, was a noticeably marginal difference at the box office. The noir crime thriller was an indie film set in London and focuses on the young, struggling writer called "The Young Man" (Jeremy Theobald) who seeks inspiration for characters in his novel by following strangers around London. After learning that one of his targets is a burglar named Cobb (Alex Haw), he is encouraged to go on burglaries for the experience. The Young Man soon learns that he is implicated in a murder, and he was actually the target. The film grossed $48,482 against a $6000 budget, which is a decent profit for a college-funded film.
9 Memento
Released in 2001, Nolan directed and wrote the screenplay for Memento, a mystery thriller based on a short story named Memento Mori, written by his brother Jonathan Nolan, who is also a director, screenwriter, and producer. Nolan has a way of weaving complexity into a film in a way that adds intrigue to the plot and gives the film suspense, and he did just that with Memento. The movie follows a former insurance investigator named Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) who has been diagnosed with anterograde amnesia, a mental disability that leads to partial or complete short-term memory loss. In Leonard's case, he forgets every 15 minutes. He suffered this fate after receiving a head injury from one of the two men who raped and killed his wife, Catherine (Jorja Fox). Other actors cast in the movie were Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, Callum Keith Renne, and Larry Holden. On a budget of $4.5 million, the film grossed $40 million at the box office.
8 The Prestige
In a tale of two rival magicians trying to out-do each other in the art of magic, Christopher Nolan takes his viewers down the rabbit hole with the 2006 release of The Prestige. The film is set in the 1890s and follows two obsessed magicians, one is an aristocrat named Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman), and the other is a working-class man named Alfred Borden (Christian Bale). They work as musicians under the guidance of a stage magic designer named John Cutter (Michael Caine). Their feud ensues after Angier's wife, Julia, drowns on stage after a magic trick goes wrong. As independent magicians, they take turns sabotaging each other until Angier becomes obsessed with finding out Borden's teleportation presentation and has Nikola Tesla create a teleportation machine for him. The enigmatic film grossed $109.7 million at the box office, which still accounts for one of Nolan's lowest-grossing creations.
7 Insomnia
It's also noteworthy that Nolan has worked with some of the most legendary actors in Hollywood, as his previous movies have revealed. His 2002 film, Insomnia, a film where the Man of Steel director had an incredible ensemble of actors at his disposal, beginning with Al Pacino who plays the role of Will Dormer, a skilled and highly requested Los Angeles police detective who is called on to investigate the murder of a teenage girl named Kay Connell (Crystal Lowe) in Alaska. He is accompanied by his partner, Hap Eckhart (Martin Donovan), and is greeted by a local Alaskan detective named Ellie Burr (Hilary Swank). Things go south when Dormer accidentally shoots and kills his partner, Eckhart. He attempts to cover his actions but was seen by the girl's killer, Walter Finch (Robin Williams), who wants Dormer to deflect suspicions from him as the killer in exchange for keeping quiet about the shooting incident. Despite being called "very plain," according to Collider, the movie grossed $113.8 million globally.
6 Tenet
As one of Nolan's most recently released films of 2020, Tenet is a science fiction action thriller that explores the theme of time travel and espionage. It follows a CIA agent dubbed the "Protagonist" (John David Washington) who is seen seizing an algorithm artifact but loses it after being captured and tortured by mercenaries. Soon after, he is recruited by an organization called Tenet, where he meets his handler, Neil (Robert Pattinson). Protagonist and Neil must now travel through time to seize special bullets that move backward through time, called entropy bullets. They trace the bullets to an arms dealer named Priya Singh (Dimple Kapadia) in India, who leads them to a Russian oligarch named Andrei Sator (Kenneth Branagh). Andrei reveals to his wife Kat Barton (Elizabeth Debicki) that he needs the artifacts seized earlier by Protagonist to create an algorithm that will reverse climate change. Nolan has a penchant for taking his viewers down the rabbit trail, and it paid off, grossing $363 million at the box office.
5 Batman Begins
Upon release, Batman Begins wasn't much of a sensation, given Nolan's unique take on Gotham City's mysterious bat-like hero. The film features a much younger version of Bruce Wayne, played by Christian Bale, and provides an alternative reality that would later give birth to Batman. Bruce developed a phobia for bats as a child. Shortly thereafter, he witnessed the murder of both his parents, leaving him to be raised by their butler, Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Caine). Wayne becomes intent on learning martial arts and, after meeting Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson) is recruited into the League of Shadows led by Ra's al Ghul. After learning the League of Shadows' intent to destroy Gotham City, Wayne rejects them and returns to Gotham. With the help of Alfred and Lucious Fox, he sets up his headquarters in the caves beneath his mansion and gives birth to Batman. Not only did the cast of characters provide a spark of brilliance to the film, but Nolan's perspective shone a new light on Batman, earning the film $371.9 million at the box office.
4 Interstellar
By this time, it's easy to assess that Christopher Nolan cherishes everything strange and bizarre, which usually falls under the genre of science fiction. So in 2014, he struck again with Interstellar, an epic intergalactic science fiction film with an even more epic collection of actors. The film is set in 2067, a time when humanity's existence is threatened by crop blights and severe sandstorms. The lead actor, Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), is an ex-NASA pilot-turned farmer who is led to a secret NASA facility ran by a leading NASA scientist named John Brand (Michael Caine). He is the father of Dr. Amelia Brand (Anne Hathaway), also a NASA scientist and astronaut. Dr. Brand reveals that otherworldly being opened a wormhole near Saturn in 2019 and three of the twelve volunteers who entered the wormhole, including Dr. Mann (Matt Damon), returned with positive results. Bestowed yet again with a cast of willing and elite actors, Interstellar grossed $701.8 million at the box office.
3 Dunkirk
Nolan has become notorious for creating films in ways that seem unorthodox enough to bend genres, yet ambitious enough to yield positive results. His film work in 2017's Dunkirk is a perfect example of that ambition, in which he invites the audience into the lives of different characters in multiple settings using relatable backstories. Set in 1940 Germany, around the time of World War 2, Allied (U.N) soldiers are forced into Dunkirk during the Battle of France. The film follows a British private named Tommy Jensen (Fionn Whitehead), who seeks evacuation at the harbor after being the sole survivor of a German ambush. He then meets fellow troops named Gibson (Aneurin Barnard) and saves a third troop named Alex (Harry Styles) after his ship is bombed. They are rescued by a civilian vessel from Great Britain captained by Peter Dawson. Other star actors in the movie included Michael Caine and Tom Hardy. Nolan's war film grossed an easy $527 million internationally.
2 Inception
Just about $200 million more and Inception would have been added to Nolan's hall of billion-dollar movies. But to say that this sci-fi action film's success was solely credited to the list of A-list actors decorating the film would be robbery to the creative genius of Christopher Nolan. Using the similar multi-dimensional visually distinct settings employed in other films, he provides the audience with a different angle on screen, literally! The film focuses on Dominic Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his partner, Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who use military-grade technology to infiltrate the subconscious mind of their targets in order to extract information via an illegal shared dream state, awarding them the name "extractors." They then go on a wild journey of subconscious intrusion, revealing a great deal about their personal lives. The film also features Michael Cain, Cillian Murphy, and Tom Hardy as other members of the cast. Ultimately, Inception grossed an immense $836.8 million globally.
1 The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight is the second installment of Nolan's epic trilogy and doesn't fail to satisfy. Christian Bale reprises his role as Gotham's masked hero and now has a firm grip on the once-thought irredeemable city of Gotham. But he hasn't accomplished this on his own. Working alongside Lt. Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) and District Attorney Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), Bruce Wayne was able to restore a sense of normalcy to the city. But, enter the Joker (Heath Hedger), a young, wild psychopath with a devil-may-care attitude that tips the scales of justice once again. Joker proceeds to go on a killing spree until Batman reveals his identity, and in doing so kills Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes), while disfiguring half of Dent's face. Batman and Gordon attempt to put a stop to Joker's reign of terror. The action drama film grossed $1.005 billion at the box office, becoming one of Nolan's most successful films.
Sources: Collider, The Conversation, NY Times, Grade Saver
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