A titan of modern cinema, Christopher Nolan is one of the few directors working today whose name can get moviegoers queuing around the block. When it comes to awards and critical acclaim, Nolan is among the elite. But his movies are commercially successful too, with his 12 films to date (not including the upcoming The Odyssey) generating over $6 billion (£4.5bn) at the box office worldwide.
Using data from Box Office Mojo, we’ve adjusted the global box office take of all Nolan’s films for inflation and ranked them from least to most successful.
Click or scroll on to discover which one tops the list.
All dollar amounts in US dollars
On the face of it, Nolan’s debut was not a major commercial success by any means, generating only $126,000 on its original release. However, when you consider it cost just $6,000 to make, all of it from Nolan’s own pocket, it’s not a bad return. This twisty London-based crime tale was shot using natural light, with each scene heavily rehearsed and captured in one or two takes to cut down on the cost of film stock.
The recipient of several indie film awards, Following brought Nolan to the attention of producers and investors, launching his career and helping him secure funding for his next feature…
Based on a short story by Nolan’s brother Jonathan, Memento is the tale of a man with amnesia who cannot form long-term memories. Played by Guy Pearce, the protagonist deploys a complex system of notes, photographs and tattoos to help him piece together the events that led to the murder of his wife.
Debuting at the Venice Film Festival, Memento was an instant hit with critics. Initially released in just 11 US cinemas, word-of-mouth momentum led to its expansion into 500 more, and it eventually grossed $40 million worldwide against a production budget of $9 million.
It picked up more than 30 awards and earned two Oscar nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Editing.
Sandwiched between Nolan’s first two Batman movies, The Prestige was something of a backward box office step, racking up $109 million worldwide against a budget of around $40 million. But while this story of two warring magicians received a cooler critical and commercial reception at the time, its reputation has grown in the years since.
Despite taking on the Batman franchise, The Prestige is a reminder of what Christoper Nolan does best – a masterfully-crafted original story with a twist ending that shocks and delights audiences, leaving them wondering how they never saw it coming.
This psychological drama starring Al Pacino and the late Robin Williams was something of a departure, as it was the first film Nolan directed that he wasn’t credited with writing. An adaptation of a Norwegian film, Insomnia was played relatively straight by Nolan's standards, with the twisting time structures replaced by a more traditional narrative.
The movie grossed $113 million worldwide, more than covering its $46 million production budget. Nolan’s first major studio movie, it proved he had the chops to handle a bigger budget and established stars and still deliver a critical and commercial hit. Insomnia ultimately paved the way for Nolan’s next movie. More on that shortly.
Nolan reportedly spent years refining the screenplay for Tenet, and while filming ended in 2019, its release was delayed due to the pandemic. It subsequently arrived in cinemas carrying the hopes of Warner Bros. with it, delivering a worldwide gross of $365 million against a budget of $205 million, ultimately resulting in a loss when marketing and other costs are factored in.
Blowing up a real-life Boeing 747 probably didn’t help matters. The studio’s decision to simultaneously release it on HBO Max was met with fury by Nolan, and Tenet would be his last movie with Warner Bros.
It still finished 2020 as the fifth highest-grossing film of the year, but divided critics more than any other Nolan movie to date. Dubbed a “time-bending take on James Bond” by The New York Times, it’s fair to say the premise at the heart of the film is a challenging one.
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Nolan’s first movie after Insomnia was a big one. The Batman franchise had been in deep freeze since the 1997 box office disaster that was Batman & Robin, and hopes for a reboot helmed by Nolan were low. Starring Christian Bale as the Caped Crusader, this origin story went back to basics, delivering a darker and more realistic vision of Batman.
The film did decent box-office business, generating $373 million worldwide against a $150 million budget. It became the ninth highest-grossing film of the year and the second highest-grossing Batman film at the time, behind only Tim Burton’s first directorial outing.
Arguably, it's one of the most influential movies of the decade, helping to popularise the concept of the “reboot” and encouraging filmmakers to inject a more serious tone into superhero fare. It raised Nolan’s profile significantly and made Bale a bona fide star.
A critical and commercial smash, Dunkirk proved Nolan could make a hit movie without superheroes or elaborate plot twists. Deploying practical effects, minimal dialogue and an extras cast in the thousands, the movie grossed $526 million globally, making it the highest-grossing World War II film ever at the time, eclipsing Saving Private Ryan’s $482 million.
Hailed as Nolan’s best film yet and one of the greatest war movies ever made, Dunkirk received eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Nolan’s first Best Director nod. It walked away with three awards: Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing.
Nolan’s first post-Batman project was that rarest of things, an original science fiction movie that wasn’t a sequel or part of an existing franchise. Nolan embraced the responsibility, producing an epic in scale and ambition that balanced an emotional core with stunning visual effects and scientific realism.
The movie grossed $681 million globally against a budget of $165 million, breaking the IMAX opening weekend record in the process. Interstellar has proved to be Nolan’s most enduring work to date, with multiple cinematic re-releases racking up an additional $100 million in the years since.
The highest-grossing World War II movie record Nolan set with Dunkirk was broken just a few years later. One half of the cultural phenomenon labelled Barbenheimer, where some brave moviegoers watched it as part of a double feature with Barbie, Oppenheimer pulled in a staggering $975 million worldwide.
Given its competition, it became the highest-grossing movie never to reach the top spot at the domestic box office, before finally surpassing Barbie six weeks into its run.
It remains the third highest-grossing R-rated movie ever (behind Joker and Deadpool & Wolverine) and the highest-grossing biographical film of all time. It earned a massive 13 Oscar nominations and won seven, including (deep breath) Best Picture, Best Actor for Cillian Murphy, Best Supporting Actor for Robert Downey Jr. and a first Best Director victory for Nolan himself.
One of the most successful original blockbusters of all time, Nolan developed the idea for Inception in 2002, ultimately shelving it after deciding he lacked the experience to tackle a project of its magnitude. He returned to it post The Dark Knight, with Warner Bros. and Legendary backing him to the tune of $160 million to bring it to life.
Inception grossed $830 million worldwide, an incredible feat given its unusual and challenging science fiction concept, and it finished 2010 as the year’s fourth highest-grossing movie behind Toy Story 3, Alice in Wonderland and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1.
Its ending remains one of the most debated in cinematic history, and the movie has since earned the highest pop-culture honour – a Simpsons parody.
Considered the blueprint for modern superhero movies, Nolan’s return to the Batman franchise was nothing short of spectacular. The first major film to be shot with high-resolution IMAX cameras, Nolan was backed with a $185 million budget to bring his vision to life, with the director avoiding the use of CGI wherever possible and opting for spectacular real-life stunts, including flipping an 18-wheeler truck and blowing up a factory.
Heath Ledger's death in the build-up to the film’s release inevitably led to widespread interest in the movie. It grossed just over $1 billion worldwide and broke several box office records, becoming the highest-grossing superhero movie at the time. Ledger received a host of posthumous awards for his role as the Joker, including the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
Edging out its predecessor by $81 million on its original release, The Dark Knight Rises takes the top spot as the highest-grossing Christopher Nolan film to date. Despite receiving a less warm critical reception than The Dark Knight, Nolan saw out his trilogy with aplomb, and the movie racked up $1,084,939,099 worldwide.
As with The Dark Knight, records tumbled. Rises broke the IMAX opening weekend record and became the fastest movie ever to make $50 million in IMAX cinemas.
At the time, it was the seventh highest-grossing movie ever and the thirteenth film in history to pass the $1 billion mark. Remarkably, three other films achieved the feat in the same year: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Skyfall and The Avengers.
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