That's $20 million, in case the zeroes didn't make sense. Twenty million. If that figure doesn't sound impressive to you, let's put it into perspective.
According to THR, the average salary for most directors nowadays is anything between $750,000 to $1 million - depending on previous credits, box-office earnings and their name recognition.
Angelina Jolie, for example, scored a $1 million payday for directing Unbroken whilst David Fincher walked away from the Steve Jobs biopic as Sony Pictures refused to meet his asking price of $10 million and control over marketing the film.
Where most of the money gets made for directors is on the back-end, i.e., a percentage of the film's profits in exchange for a smaller, upfront fee. For Christopher Nolan, however, it's a hefty upfront fee AND points on the back-end.
While actors still earn the largest salaries up front - Christian Bale was allegedly offered close to $50 million to return as Batman for Zack Snyder's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice - Nolan's salary for Dunkirk speaks to his abilities as a director and as an earner for Warner Bros.
All told, Nolan's Batman trilogy earned $2.3 BILLION in box-office earnings and that doesn't even account for the home market or lucrative tie-ins and licensing deals. Inception, meanwhile, made $825 million whilst Interstellar made $675 million during its run.
Would anyone begrudge him a payday like this? Absolutely not. Dunkirk hits Irish screens on July 21st, 2017.
Via THR
