Christopher Nolan on ‘Interstellar’s’ cosmic success 10 years later

The hardest movie ticket to get this weekend was for a movie that audiences have been able to see at home for years: Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar.”

The science fiction epic starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway earned $4.5 million on just 166 screens in the US and Canada. Its 70 mm IMAX film presentations sold out in minutes, leaving theaters scrambling to add more, and people paying up to $300 on the resale market. These 10 screens alone fetched a staggering $70,000 apiece. theater average, one of the highest of the year and usually the boast of acclaimed arthouse films playing only on four screens.

Ten years after “Interstellar” was granted a film release as a special exception at a time when its studio, Paramount, was committing to a digital future, the film is not only back, but driving audiences to theaters.

“I was just so happy with the response,” Nolan said in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press. “It’s really exciting when people respond to your work at any point. But 10 years later, to have new audiences come and experience it the way we originally intended it on the big IMAX screens and especially on these IMAX film prints? It’s really rewarding to see it continue to have a life.”

How Nolan fought for film and the re-release

“Interstellar” had been a labor of love, with Nolan fighting the tide of a changing industry to use film determined by its value. Like McConaughey’s Cooper, an astronaut clinging to skills almost obsolete in his dust bowl reality, “Interstellar” was made by a celluloid-loving filmmaker when the format was least appreciated.

“Celluloid film was very much under threat. Digital took over everything,” Nolan said. “We put a tremendous amount of work and effort into releasing the IMAX 70mm film format at the time, and we felt we didn’t know how much longer we would be able to do that.”

In its time, “Interstellar” was warmly received and an unequivocal success, but it also had its detractors. Its five Oscar nominations and win were all for craftsmanship. And yet in the decade since, “Interstellar” has become beloved, a true classic. Nolan noted that it was the film that people kept wanting to talk about, telling him what it meant to them and asking if it would ever be re-released. The big emotions and sentimental themes of love, family and exploration that were a liability with some are now its most prized qualities.

“A lot of these people were younger people who, it was clear to me, had seen the movie at home and hadn’t had the opportunity to see it on the big screen,” Nolan said.

While there have been “Interstellar” re-releases internationally, in China and at the Science Museum in London, Nolan saw an opportunity and talked to IMAX and Paramount, now under a new regime, about a proper North American re-release for their 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,” said IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond. “It reminded us in a small way of the frenzy surrounding ‘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 held by “The Last Jedi”). The company is currently exploring options for re-releases in various territories.

What should Hollywood learn from the weekend?

The “Oppenheimer” effect was real in redeeming the film’s value for the company.