How 'Odyssey' Director Christopher Nolan Became Hollywood's Biggest Star

At The Odyssey premiere in Mumbai on Saturday, director Christopher Nolan joked about its prospects as an international summer blockbuster. “It's wonderful how [the movie] kind of brings us together, and for us to go on the road and travel and come here,” the British-born director told the audience, before taking a Spider-Man jab at one of his movie’s stars. “but if you see only one Tom Holland film this summer…”

Because, of course, The Odyssey isn’t a Tom Holland movie. Even with a cast that includes Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Lupita N’yongo, Charlize Theron and other A-list actors, the only name listed on the poster is the one listed above the title:“A film by Christopher Nolan.”

The 55-year-old director has achieved name-brand status among the most casual moviegoers and developed an army of cinephile devotees for his spectacle-driven films like Inception, Interstellar and a Batman trilogy, culminating in 2023 when he turned Oppenheimer—a three-hour historical drama about the father of the atomic bomb—into a nearly billion-dollar blockbuster and a winner of seven Oscars. This time around he’ll put that drawing power to the test with an even riskier project, a $250 million sword-and-sandal epic shot entirely in IMAX 70mm that rivals the most ambitious movies of all time.

“I think in my mind he's our modern version of [Lawrence of Arabia director] David Lean,” says Ron Howard, the Oscar-winning director of A Beautiful Mind and Apollo 13. “He delivers movies that kind of become instant classics.”

For Nolan, that box office prowess also comes with movie star-sized paydays. Forbes estimates that Universal paid him $20 million up front for The Odyssey, as an advance against 20% of the studio’s take from the box office gross, which he shares with his wife and the film’s producer, Emma Thomas (15% and 5%, respectively, per Forbes estimates). It’s a variation on the classic “20 against 20” deal that was standard in decades past for top actors like Tom Cruise, Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks, but today, only exists for filmmakers who can guarantee a blockbuster with nearly every release.

Various deductions and fees could affect Nolan’s share—“nobody gets true gross,” goes the old Hollywood axiom—but if The Odyssey brings in more than $800 million globally this summer, as box office analysts predict, Nolan would be in line to make at least $75 million. Video on-demand sales and payouts from the first streaming window could easily push that past his initial Oppenheimer total of $85 million, before paying taxes and fees to agents and lawyers (in the long tail, it’s likely his Oppenheimer and Odyssey earnings will climb above $100 million each).

Of course, Nolan is not the first filmmaker to appear on late night talk shows and the cover of magazines, or make a fortune on gross participation in his movies. Steven Spielberg held similar prestige in the 1980s and ’90s with a string of blockbusters that formed the foundation of a personal wealth Forbes now values at $7.1 billion. James Cameron, another billionaire, earned more than $300 million from one movie alone—his gross stake in 2009’s Avatar. At various times, Martin Scorsese, Peter Jackson, Quentin Tarintino and other directors have all wielded box office power. But Nolan’s preeminence comes in an era when each movie release competes desperately for attention, not only against other releases but also streaming, videogames, TikTok, YouTube and other entertainment options.

“Hollywood has always had an elite tier of filmmakers that drew audiences based on their name power alone,” says Brandon Katz, director of insights and content strategy at Greenlight Analytics. “But I think in today’s highly fragmented media ecosystem, their value is arguably more important than ever before because they are cutting through a crowded marketplace.”

When deciding whether a movie is worth paying to see in theaters, audiences in recent years are increasingly swayed by directors, rather than the actors they cast. A new class of filmmakers like Ryan Coogler (Sinners), Zach Cregger (Weapons) and Jordan Peele (Get Out) have emerged as needle-moving theatrical draws, and now regularly command $15-20 million per movie—on par with top actors. Even this year’s breakout hits Obsession and Backrooms were primarily credited to young directors Curry Barker and Kane Parsons, with Barker reportedly receiving a blind $10 million offer from one studio hoping to land whatever movie he wanted to make next.

Still, it’s Nolan who reigns supreme. According to Greenlight’s survey data, even 12 months before the release and marketing blitz of The Odyssey, more than 70% of respondents who were aware the movie existed had “theatrical intent” to go see it—by comparison, Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash and Coogler’s Sinners drew 45%. “Right now, Nolan is the number one guy,” Katz says. “And he’s done it largely without traditional IP, that’s the most impressive thing of all.”

Nolan first flexed his movie star leverage in 2021, when he departed longtime studio home Warner Bros. over the company’s pandemic-era decision to stream movies at home on the same day as their theatrical release, then welcomed a line of studio and streaming executives into his Hollywood Hills home office to vie for his next project. Universal eventually landed it by offering more than it would promise any actor—complete creative control and gross participation, but also commitments to a robust marketing campaign, an extended theatrical window, and a blackout period for releases in the weeks before and after his movie.

Oppenheimer became the biggest success of Nolan’s career, giving him all but the power to “direct the phonebook,” as Howard puts it. He chose to make an epic live-action version of Homer’s The Odyssey, a movie that would require a massive 91-day shooting schedule across six countries, with an estimated budget around $250 million. Universal agreed and gave Nolan similar terms.

“I’m drawn to working at a large scale because I know how fragile the opportunity to marshal those resources is,” Nolan told Time magazine in early 2024. “I know that there are so many filmmakers out there in the world who would give their eyes or 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.”

A movie as expensive as The Odyssey, of course, is no sure thing for a studio, which is why its budget level is usually reserved for superhero movies and other franchise sequels. In order to recoup the production and marketing costs, given the roughly 50-50 split with theaters on ticket sales and Nolan’s gross percentage, the movie would likely need to earn more than $800 million worldwide before it starts generating profit. Universal will almost certainly pocket far more from Obsession than The Odyssey this year.

Yet studios would do nearly anything to get into the Nolan business (including Warner Bros., who have in recent years sent Nolan a seven-figure royalty check and put his older WB movies back in theaters for limited IMAX runs). To film investors, he is a unicorn not only for the box office results he can generate but also for the reliability he provides in production. The Odyssey, for instance, wrapped its principal photography nine days ahead of schedule.

Nolan brought a similar efficiency this year to his other job as president of the Director’s Guild of America, helping to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement in June while simultaneously deep in post-production work on The Odyssey. The signed deal came a full three weeks before the deadline, avoiding another work stoppage like the one that plagued Hollywood in 2023 and for years following.

Howard, a vice president for the guild, witnessed Nolan’s no-nonsense managerial style at a recent board meeting.

“Points are raised, conversations are had, decisions get made, and we finish an hour early,” he says with a laugh. “Afterwards, I say to him, ‘Oh, I've heard about you! This is what I’ve heard about you!”

Perhaps the surest sign of the respect Nolan commands from the filmmaking community is the excitement other directors like Howard feel about going to a theater to see The Odyssey on opening weekend.

"I know I ordered my IMAX tickets already,” Howard says, “and I don't do that very often."