Christopher Nolan becomes Hollywood’s trusty franchises

Christopher Nolan has spent much of the past two decades proving that audiences will leave home and go to the movies if they trust the storyteller behind the film. On Friday, that theory faces its latest test when “The Odyssey” opens in cinemas.

With a filmography that has raked in more than $6 billion in ticket sales since his breakthrough film “Memento” in 2000, consistent critical acclaim for his treatment of complex nonlinear narratives and scores of recent accolades, including the Academy Award for best picture for “Oppenheimer” in 2024, Nolan has earned audiences’ trust. Along the way, he’s also built a brand powerful enough that his work competes with Hollywood’s biggest franchises.

“The Odyssey,” an adaptation of Homer’s epic poem starring Matt Damon as Odysseus returning home to the kingdom of Ithaca after the Trojan War, is forecast to generate sales of about $100 million in the US and Canada in its first weekend. The release follows a multimillion-dollar campaign that included red carpet premieres in London, Paris, New York and Mumbai — the first-ever Nolan film premiere in India.

Produced by Syncopy Inc. — the company Nolan runs with his wife Emma Thomas — “The Odyssey” cost roughly $250 million to make. Comcast Corp.’s Universal Pictures, which is releasing the picture, has backed it with the kind of confidence studios once only reserved for surefire box office draws such as “Batman,” “Harry Potter” or “Jurassic Park.”

“He is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met, and one of the few elite directors who can open a film that becomes a huge draw for audiences,” Tim Richards, founder and chief executive officer of European cinema operator Vue International, said of Nolan. “It’s his attention to detail. You can tell when you watch one of his movies that he’s agonized over every single frame.”

“The Odyssey,” which has a star-studded cast including Zendaya, Anne Hathaway and Tom Holland, has gotten rave early reviews. It has a 96% critics approval rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, which cites the film’s “majestic sweep” and “sterling work by its colossal ensemble.”

Nolan’s success has effectively inverted the modern Hollywood studio model, which overwhelmingly relies on familiar characters such as superheroes, dinosaurs, spies and toy brands that offer audiences instant recognition in a crowded entertainment landscape and help reduce financial risk. Directors have generally remained secondary to the film, with Nolan and a select few others as exceptions. His name signals quality and originality, as well as a crucial poster topping that’s redolent of Steven Spielberg after the success of “Jaws,” “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” and “Jurassic Park,” or the auteur brand Quentin Tarantino curated during the independent cinema boom of the 1990s.

The director-as-draw phenomenon isn’t new — Alfred Hitchcock marketed himself as aggressively as his films, transforming the director into the attraction — but it remains an exception to the rule in age of franchises, remakes, reboots and sequels. That model has begun showing signs of fatigue, with low-budget, original films such as “Obsession” and “Backrooms” from YouTube creators trouncing the latest superhero and “Star Wars” movies at the box office.

After “Memento,” whose positive reception at the Sundance Film Festival helped drive more than $40 million in ticket sales — close to 10 times its production budget — Nolan made the noir picture “Insomnia” before moving into blockbuster territory with his brooding reimagining of Batman in “The Dark Knight” trilogy. His success with that beloved comic book character drove fans to his other projects, which since 2006 have included a number of original films with challenging plot lines such as “The Prestige,” “Inception,” “Interstellar” and “Tenet.” Those films, which deftly explored concepts such as shared dreaming and time warping, resonated with ardent cinephiles and casual moviegoers alike.

Tribune News Service