Christopher Nolan has become one of the strongest brands in blockbuster film-making, thanks to the $2.5bn success of The Dark Knight trilogy and the Best Picture-nominated Inception. Although very little is known about Interstellar at the minute, it is safe to assume that much like Nolan's last three movies it will become one of the year's biggest earners. The only problem could be the November 7 release date, which is just two weeks before The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 arrives to annihilate the box office, while adult audiences will also have Dumb and Dumber To, David Ayer's Fury, and Horrible Bosses 2 to choose from over the following three weeks. The Dark Knight was the highest-grossing movie of 2008, Inception was fourth in 2010, and The Dark Knight Rises third in 2012 so Nolan also has to live up t0 his own lofty expectations at the box office. Although two of those movies are rooted in the perennially-popular Batman franchise and the other was top-lined by one of Hollywood's most bankable stars in Leonardo DiCaprio, there was a huge emphasis on Nolan's name in the marketing. Audiences know that the director produces big-budget, yet complex and intelligent movies that people will flock to see. Even as executive producer, Nolan's name was heavily featured in advertising for Man of Steel, which became one of 2013's ten biggest earners. The general synopsis for Interstellar would seem like a hard sell commercially, but that's what a lot of people said about Inception. That opened at $62.8m domestically and closed with $825.5m, an incredible number for a completely original property. With a more overtly sci-fi approach, I'm not convinced Interstellar will match Inception's total. However, the success of Gravity ($677.7m) has shown there is a large audience for sci-fi 'event' movies. With the strength of the Nolan brand and a cast full of popular actors (Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Matt Damon et al) expect it to finish with a total somewhere between Gravity and Inception.
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