The hardest movie ticket to get this weekend was for a film audiences have been able to watch at home for years: Christopher Nolan’s "Interstellar."
The science fiction epic starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway earned $4.5 million from only 166 screens in the US and Canada. Its 70mm IMAX film presentations sold out in minutes, leaving theaters scrambling to add more and people paying up to $300 on the re-sale market. Those 10 film screens alone had a staggering $70,000 per theater average, one of the highest of the year and usually the bragging rights of acclaimed arthouse movies playing on only four screens.
Ten years after "Interstellar" was given a film release as a special exception at time when its studio, Paramount, was committing to a digital future, film is not only back but driving audiences to theaters.
"I was just so gratified by the response," Nolan said in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press. "It’s really thrilling when people respond to your work at any point. But 10 years later, to have new audiences coming and experiencing it in the way that we’d originally intended it on the big IMAX screens and in particular on those IMAX film prints? It’s really rewarding to see that it continues to have a life."
How Nolan fought for film and the re-release "Interstellar" had been a labor of love, with Nolan fighting against the tides of a changing industry to use film, certain of its value. Like McConaughey’s Cooper, an astronaut clinging to skills that were all but obsolete in his dust bowl reality, "Interstellar" was made by a celluloid-loving filmmaker when the format was least valued.
"Celluloid film was very threatened. Digital was taking over everything," Nolan said. "We put an enormous amount of work and effort into the IMAX 70mm film format release at the time feeling like we didn’t know how much longer we’d be able to do that."
During its time, "Interstellar" was received warmly and an unambiguous success, but it also had its detractors. Its five Oscar nominations and win were all for crafts. And yet in the decade since, "Interstellar" has become beloved, a true classic. Nolan observed that it was the film that people kept wanting to talk about, telling him what it meant to them and asking if it was ever going to be re-released. Those grand emotions and sentimental themes of love, family and exploration that were a liability with some are now its most cherished qualities.
"A lot of these people were younger people who, it was clear to me, had seen the film in the home and hadn’t had the chance to see it on the big screen," Nolan said.
While there have been "Interstellar" rereleases internationally, in China and at the Science Museum in London, Nolan saw an opportunity and spoke to IMAX and Paramount, now under a new regime, about a proper North American re-release for its 10th anniversary. The prints, Nolan said, hadn't aged a day.
IMAX hardly needed convincing: They’ve had the anniversary date circled on the calendar. For years, "Interstellar" was by far the biggest request on their social channels.
"We saw this coming from the beginning," IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond said. "It reminded us in a small way of the frenzy around ‘Oppenheimer.’ But the result is far beyond our expectations."
"Interstellar" is now the ninth highest-grossing IMAX release of all time and is closing in on eight (currently occupied by "The Last Jedi.") The company is currently exploring options for re-releases in different territories.
What should Hollywood learn from the weekend? The "Oppenheimer" effect was real in redeeming film's value for the business.
IMAX screens accounted for some 20% of the nearly $1 billion this year's Oscar best picture winner made globally (it ranks at No. 5 for IMAX). While filmmakers have long cherished film stock, "Oppenheimer" had studios, distributors and theaters taking note of the demand. Earlier this year the film showings of "Dune: Part Two" were sold out for four weeks. And there's more to come: Ryan Coogler's new film "Sinners," opening in March 2025, was shot with IMAX cameras.
The "Interstellar" release was fairly "low key" when it came to promotion, but it also didn’t need much — fans made sure of that. Before IMAX had even announced that tickets were on sale, some noticed that AMC had made them available. News spread on socials and overnight every 70mm IMAX showing at the Lincoln Square location in New York had sold out. It wasn’t just the "primetime" slots either: The 1 AM showtimes were at capacity too.
After the weekend's turnout surpassed expectations, they added more 70mm IMAX screenings through the week which also filled up quickly.
While Nolan is in some ways an anomaly, as the rare filmmaker whose name alone can draw crowds for original fare, there are lessons to be learned from the weekend.
"It just shows our industry once again that audiences truly understand the difference between a communal, big screen theatrical experience that they crave even on films that they’ve had the opportunities to see in the home," Nolan said. "That theatrical experience that we all know and love is so powerful and so exciting. It’s a very clear demonstration of it, especially coming amidst all the great successes right now, "Wicked,Gladiator II," and "Moana 2."
"Audiences are coming out in droves for that experience that we all love so much."
Dreaming big for the future and appreciating the past Before the weekend, Nolan was able to see the film again on the big screen for the first time since the original release, accompanied by his Oscar-winning "Oppenheimer" cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema. "Interstellar" was their first collaboration and Hoytema’s introduction to IMAX cameras (where he proved that they could be handheld if you tried hard enough).
"It was really, really fun," Nolan said.
He also approved the new 4K UHD "Interstellar" set that's now available.
Since "Oppenheimer's" big night at the Oscars and Nolan's best director win, there's been much speculation about his next film with near daily rumors circulating about casting and genre, none of which have been officially confirmed. It's not something he's speaking publicly about yet. One thing he will say, however, is that he’s in the throes of intensive testing for a new film technology with IMAX to use in the next production.
"They have an incredible engineering staff, really brilliant minds doing extraordinary work," he said. "It’s wonderful to see innovation in the celluloid film arena still happening and happening at the highest level possible."
And he’s still making time to go to the movies. Over the weekend, Nolan went to see "Wicked" at a theater in Burbank where he also peeked into one of the IMAX presentations of his film.
"It was pretty magical to see a full house on that film," he said. "It was a very special thing to see, 10 years later."
