How far will Universal lean to give Nolan the theatrical career he wants? That is the question.
Imagine an atomic bomb exploding in the clouds, at IMAX. Well, moviegoers will now be able to see this image in the new $ 100 million film by list author Christopher Nolan. At the end of the deal on Monday night, Nolan’s green light script on how physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project invented the atomic bombs that ended World War II in August of 1945. Filming should begin, with or without Nolan’s usual rumors, Cillian Murphy (who bears a certain resemblance to Oppenheimer) in early 2022.
Donna Langley, president of the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, addresses the audience during Universal Pictures ’presentation at CinemaCon 2019.
Chris Pizzello / Invision / AP
Universal won several major studios to support the project after Nolan decided to abandon his 19-year exclusive relationship with Warner Bros. (He had international rights to Paramount’s “Interstellar”). On December 3, 2020, it was announced that the studio’s list for 2021, including “Dune,” linked to IMAX, would open the day and date in theaters and on HBO Max, Nolan was over.
For the Oppenheimer project, top studio executives (who did not include Warners) went to the Warners Burbank site. There they read the script in the offices of Nolan and his production partner Emma Thomas, followed by their best tones on how to get to the filmmaker.
Your choice of Universal makes perfect sense. What other studio would be able and willing to offer the high-end production and theatrical release it demands? Warners is changing as Discovery takes over the studio; MGM / UA is on sale on Amazon; Paramount has just lost respected leader Jim Gianopulos to Brian Robbins, a streaming friend; Sony lacks a current box office mojo; and Disney is clearly bent over the skin in its streaming strategy. By default, Universal is the first-rate studio with a sensible theatrical modus operandi. Above all: Apparently, Universal intensified the model agreement Nolan had in Warners.
In addition, Donna Langley had been courting Nolan, a British colleague, for years. Langley first joined Universal Pictures in 2001 as a senior production executive, moving from the ranks of production president and co-president to president. His track record and taste are impeccable, from participating in the “Fifty Shades of Gray” and “Downton Abbey” franchises and Oscar winners for “Green Book” and “BlacKkKlansman”, to maintaining the franchise “Fast and Furious,” even during the pandemic: “F9” surpassed all Hollywood releases in 2021 with $ 714 million worldwide. Langley also knows how to feed original filmmakers, from Jordan Peele to M. Night Shyamalan, and always keeps creatives abreast of marketing and distribution decisions.
“F9”
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The question is how Universal will handle throwing Nolan’s grim era drama into theaters. The agreement between the studio’s cinemas and the major channels dictates that all films that earn more than $ 50 million on the opening weekend receive an exclusive 31-day theatrical window. five full weekends in theaters. All films that open under this benchmark are guaranteed a 17-day window or three weekends in cinemas. (The current study standard is 45 days.) Universal has remained flexible as it has adapted to the new normal. In Nolan’s case, expect the studio to do everything with IMAX and 70mm, as he did with Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Phantom Thread”.
In a nutshell: Universal will bend backwards to give Nolan a long theatrical career, even if the drama of the somber period opens at $ 45 million or less. (This runs the risk of opening that door to other filmmakers.) But you won’t get 108 days as a “Tenet”. These days are over.
This deal reminds Hollywood that the best talent will continue to demand exclusive theatrical premieres and move away to achieve them.
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