20 Things You Didn't Know About Christopher Nolan
7. He Directed The First Billion-Dollar Comic Book Movie
Though the Marvel Cinematic Universe has made it relatively common for superhero films to break the $1 billion barrier at the box office, back in 2008 no comic movie had yet found enough commercial success to crack the milestone.
Until Christopher Nolan released The Dark Knight that is.
Though in 2007 Spider-Man 3 took a solid stab at $1 billion with its $890.9 million final cume, The Dark Knight was the first superhero film to cross the mark with a $1.005 billion worldwide total.
This additionally made it 2008's highest-grossing film, and at the time only the fourth film in history to pass $1 billion.
Since then, its achievement has been topped by more than a dozen superhero films, but it nevertheless broke new ground for the genre and proved just how potent comic book tentpoles could be with the mainstream.