During negotiations with Universal for his new film, Christopher Nolan asked for an extra-long theatrical window before it goes to streaming platforms. The director has for quite some time been making movies geared for the theatrical market, from the glossy superhero spectacle of his Dark Knight trilogy to his cerebral riddle box thrillers like Inception. Nolan has been famous for using IMAX technology and generally striving to make his films as immense as possible.
Per Variety, Nolan has not changed his feelings about the kind of release his films get. Albeit Tenet underperformed theatrically, during negotiations to get his upcoming film picked up by Universal, one of Nolan’s large asks was a longer window between theatrical release and streaming. This makes sense, considering that a tremendous reason for Nolan leaving Warner Bros. was their decision to release their 2021 slate on HBO Max. The industry standard for 2021 has been a 45-day window, however he has asked for somewhere in the range of 90 and 120 days. It is unclear on the off chance that he will get his wish, yet Universal has already acquiesced to permit the film to be exempt from the adjustable 17 or 31-day window it has previously promised theater chains.
The film in question is an as-yet-untitled World War II film. It will follow J. Robert Oppenheimer’s involvement in creating the atomic bomb. Cillian Murphy (who has been frequently working with Nolan since his appearance in 2005’s Batman Begins and starred in the director’s previous WWII movie Dunkirk) is rumored to be considered for the lead.
Christopher Nolan is definitely taking a bet with this. In spite of the fact that theaters are slowly opening back up and certain films like Marvel’s Shang-Chi are breaking box office records, ticket numbers generally aren’t as robust as they used to be. Indeed, the upcoming movie release schedule remains in a constant state of flux following Top Gun 2 fleeing from a Thanksgiving ’21 release to Memorial Day ’22. Huge spending spectacles are being hit especially hard in the modern age, and that is exclusively what Nolan traffics in, so it will be interesting to see if this next film is a success and whether or not he changes his tack after its release.