Want to know the best Christopher Nolan movies? How about the worst Christopher Nolan movies? Curious about Christopher Nolan’s box office grosses or which Christopher Nolan movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Christopher Nolan movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which got the worst? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.
Christopher Nolan’s IMDb page shows 11 directing credits from 1997-2017. This page will rank 10 Christopher Nolan movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. His 1997 short Doodlebug was not including in the rankings. His latest movie, Dunkirk, has been added to the page.
Christopher Nolan Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.
- Sort Christopher Nolan movies co-stars of his movies.
- Sort Christopher Nolan movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost.
- Sort Christopher Nolan movies by adjusted worldwide box office grosses using current movie ticket cost.
- Sort Christopher Nolan movies how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Christopher Nolan movie received.
- Sort Christopher Nolan movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score. UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
Check out Christopher Nolan‘ career compared to current and classic actors. Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.
This page was originally part of a Nolan, M.Night Shyamalan and Quentin Tarantino movie page. Part of that original page was this little skit I wrote that looked at all three of their movie careers. I figured even though I was giving each director his own page that I would still include the skit.
Christopher, Quentin and M.Night are at a bar drinking Shiner Bock beers, smoking Red Apple cigarettes and arguing about who will be the next Spielberg.
Quentin: It has to be me, I have been directing movies for over 20 years, my Pulp Fiction is a classic, people love my Kill Bill movies, Reservoir Dogs put independent movies on the map while Inglourious Basterds was a box office hit and picked up 8 Oscar® nominations. My latest movies, Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight did awesome for westerns.
M. Night: You’ve been around the longest but you have only made 9 movies in 20 years and Four Rooms, Jackie Brown and Death Proof died at the box office…that is not a good percentage.
Christopher: You got no room to talk M., between The Village and Split, your movies all tanked! And most people have hated every movie you have made since Signs….talk about some movies with horrible reviews….you had The Village, Lady in the Water, The Happening , The Last Airbender and After Earth all lined up in a row.
M. Night: Well Mr. Nolan, at least Quentin and I have an Oscar® nomination for Best Director in our resume. And I know you remember how I was considered to be the next Spielberg after the success of The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs. I think you are forgetting The Last Airbender earned over $300 million in worldwide box office and was the 21st biggest hit of the year…plus After Earth did pretty well overseas.
Quentin: I actually have two Best Director Oscar® nominations…but who is counting. Sorry to have to tell you M. Night, but I do not think anybody has compared you to Spielberg in a very longtime….and as for The Last Airbender, true it made some money but I think it was the worst reviewed movie in the last 20 years….and I think the less said about After Earth the better.
Christopher: Speaking of box office hits…do you know my last four movies have a worldwide box office over 3 billion dollars? That includes The Dark Knight that crossed a billion at the box office, Inception which earned over $800 million and The Dark Knight Rises which also crossed the one billion mark. Interstellar picked up $672 million. My latest Dunkirk is being favorable compared to Saving Private Ryan. And oh by the way……now I am considered the next Spielberg….sorry I took that title away from you M. Night.
M. Night: Maybe that ten years was a little rough for my movies, but Split was beginning of my next great run….just wait until you see Glass….I got Bruce Wi….
Quentin: Sorry to interrupt you M.Night, I agree Split was a feather in you cap….but can you capitalize on it?….we shall see. As for you Chris, I loved Memento, The Prestige, and Insomnia but I think the Batman movies are overrated and I still do not understand your dream inside a dream inside a dream movie. And don’t even get me started on the ending of Interstellar..
Christopher: Hey I am sorry if you are not smart enough to figure out Inception, but I will try and explain it for you and don’t worry I will go real slow so maybe you will finally understand.
Quentin: (Reaches into his bag and slams two Oscars® down on the table) I am smart enough to know that this proves I am the best director in this group!
Christopher: You got those Oscars® for the screenplays for Pulp Fiction and Django Unchained, not for directing it. I’ll show you an award for directing…here is my COFCA (Central Ohio Film Critics Association) award for Best Director for Inception.
M. Night: I did not know we were supposed to bring our directing awards tonight.
Quentin: Yeah you could have brought either one of your Razzie awards as worst director for either The Happening or The Last Airbender.
At this point M.Night swipes the Oscar® and the COFCA off the table and a huge fight breaks out among the three directors. While the fight continues an older gentlemen who had been listening to the conversation grabs his stuff, pays his bill and starts to leave the bar.
Older gentleman to bartender: (Shaking his head in dismay) I just do not understand these younger directors…they have so much more to learn.
Bartender: I agree with you 100%….have a great night Mr. Spielberg and I want to tell you I that I am really looking forward to your latest movie, Player One.
If you do a comment….please ignore the email address and website section.
Interesting news for Christopher Nolan fans, and they are legion, his new film is “an action epic evolving from the world of international espionage.” ooh nice and Sir Michael “you’re only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!” Caine is in it too!
(no surprises there) 🙂
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/christopher-nolans-new-film-reveals-cast-title-1212931
Hey Steve….thanks for sharing this news. Glad that Nolan has another part for Michael Caine. Counting his uncredited role in Dunkirk, this will make 8 straight movies that Nolan has used Sir Caine. Great news for Caine fans like myself.
Hi Bruce, surprised you didn’t like it much considering how big a fan you are of the director. I’ll wait for the Blu-ray and watch some crazy French sci-fi instead on the big screen. 😉
Film critic Rex Reed isn’t a Christopher Nolan fan and Dunkirk was the only film of his he sort of liked. Here’s a snippet from his review –
“I’ve wasted an inordinate amount of time in the past few years trying to figure out the confusing lagniappe Christopher Nolan calls filmmaking. Since I have hated everything he’s done to date, from the pretentious Inception to the silly, preposterous Dark Knight trilogy, I had high hopes for Dunkirk. While in no way deserving of the slobbering genuflection with which many reviewers have greeted it, I agree it is the director’s best and most accessible work to date.”
He thought it was too loud.
“The biggest problem with Dunkirk is that it is impossible to decipher almost everything anyone is saying. Special mention must be made of Hans Zimmer’s cacophonous music, which is so deafening it even drowns out the roar of bombs and artillery. I left in need of both ear plugs and a Dramamine.”
The rest of the review can be found at Observer-com-dunkirk-review
Wow considering how fanatical Chris Nolan fans are is my post the first comment here in 2 years?! Shocked! But you did get over 10,000 views. They must be happy with your charts.
I get nasty emails from Nolan fans every single week on my video channel, because I didn’t have his films placed at no.1 on my videos. Really fed up with the lot of them. To quote Shatner “Get a life!”
Hey Steve…..actually since moving the page from Cogerson Movie Score to UMR….this is the first comment. Most of the views came from the first two websites…..since moving the page….it only has…..looking it up….2,789 views since May 2015…..that is roughly 3 views a day….which would make it my 483rd most popular page. So I guess…..the Google gods do not like my page……and the Nolan fans are pretty much unaware of the page. Oh well…you win some and lose some.
Hey Steve.
1. Wow….if this is Rex Reed’s best Nolan review…it makes me curious to read the reviews in which he did not like the movie.
2. I agree with a lot of his review….I did not think Zimmer’s music was too loud….I actually thought Zimmer’s music was one of the best parts.
3. WoC really really disliked it…..and she made a very good point….if she had not done so research on Dunkirk BEFORE going to the movie…..she would not really know what was going in the movie….and that is poor story telling on the part of Nolan.
4. Some huge Nolan fans started a campaign to get Dunkirk to be the highest rated movie on IMDb….for awhile they were succeeding…as it’s IMDb score was 9.4 which would be the best…..but that campaign is losing out to the masses that are seeing the movie…it is down to 8.8 now….and I think a 8.0 will be it’s final resting spot.
My God, is Nolan the new thing now?both Quentins and M Knights best movies are an entire league above Nolan’s movies, BUT their worst movies admittedly are an entire league below Nolan’s movies.The world forgets so quickly, suddenly the man whobrought in a new unique screenplay technique with sixth sense and unbreakable gets RIDiCULED.my oh my,,,
@charleston…Nolan and Quentin are still rolling….M.Night needs a hit and fast…thanks for the visit.
A great article on 3 great directors, all of whom have produced unique work – 6th sense, Memento and Pulp Fiction stand out for me as 3 films that best represent the director’s best work to date.
Who is the best? Pick your favourite film, but you will never get a scientific breakdown, not using turnover, ratings, oscars etc. as this is subjective. Who is the best painter ever? The best dancer? The best musician?
Great movie page, very thought provoking.
Roly
Hey Roly….thanks for the visit and the comment. I think you picked out three movies that will only improve with time. Memento is what put Nolan on the map….and no matter how big he gets…..Memento will always be one of his greatest movies. Pulp Fiction is simply one of the greatest movies ever…up there with the Citizen Kane and Vertigo of the world. 6th Sense…a classic as well….and younger people are still being surprised by the ending….13 years later.
You make a good point about…picking the best is subjective…..but it makes for a good conversation.