Nolan: Hollywood needs to release both blockbusters and small projects to succeed

Famous director Christopher Nolan recently expressed his views on the current state of filmmaking and the film industry, noting that Hollywood can only succeed when it produces both blockbuster sequels and smaller-scale projects. In an interview with the Associated Press, he talked about the balance in Hollywood.

"Hollywood has always maintained a balance between a given film, ensuring a return, and giving people more of what they want," Nolan said. "That has always been a big part of the Hollywood economy. And (the model) pays for the production and distribution of many other types of films."

"[Hollywood] always has to respect the audience's desire for something new. That's frankly one of the great thrills of going to the movies; seeing a trailer for a movie you've never heard of or a type of movie you haven't heard of or seen or haven't seen in a long time. Something new. Something fresh. So the healthy ecology of Hollywood is a balance between the two, and it always has been."

This is certainly true of Nolan, whose career has also been a balance between big-budget blockbusters and smaller, lower-budget projects. His early career was marked by low-budget films like Memento, Insomnia, and The Prestige, but he has since risen to prominence with big-budget works like The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, Interstellar, Dunkirk, Tenet, and Oppenheimer. Most recently, Oppenheimer has become Nolan's most commercially successful work outside of the Batman movies, grossing over $950 million worldwide during its theatrical run.