10 Things You Didn't Know About Inception
7. Inception Was A Gift From Warner Bros. After The Success Of The Dark Knight
Who says Hollywood doesn't have a heart, huh?
It was the success of The Dark Knight - arguably the greatest superhero film ever made - back in 2008 that allowed Christopher Nolan to begin production on his biggest ever passion project, after all. As a kind of "thank you" for all his efforts, Warner Bros. gave the director a green-light on Inception, which - at the time - was a project he'd been working on for close to a decade.
It's doubtful that the studio would've given Nolan the money he needed to make the film without The Dark Knight's box office successes, but they ultimately gave the director permission to make his long-gestating sci-fi film because they were so pleased with how The Dark Knight had turned out - financially and creatively.
A good move on the studio's part: Inception pulled in $825 million, which is a hell of a lot of money for a film based on - gasp! - an original idea.