20 Years Ago Today: Christopher Nolan Turned A Beloved Book Into A Box Office Hit

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Christopher Nolan is the biggest director on the planet. The man behind "The Dark Knight" and "The Odyssey" is one of the highest-grossing movie directors at the box office, with his movies only getting bigger as his career rolls on. But 20 years ago, he turned a beloved book into a modest hit. More importantly, that hit became one of his most beloved movies to this day.

The movie in question is "The Prestige." Released by Warner Bros. in October 2006, it was Nolan's follow-up to "Batman Begins," the beginning of Nolan's bold "Batman" reboot that was far from a big box office hit. The director made a name for himself with "Memento" and was on the upswing. While we're accustomed to him making epic-scale blockbusters, this was one of the rare times he's worked in the mid-budget realm over the last 20 years.

Adapted from Christopher Priest's widely acclaimed 1995 novel of the same name, it picks up after an illusion gone awry pits two 19th-century magicians, Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) and Rupert Angier (Hugh Jackman), against each other in a bitter battle to become the best. As the pair escalate their feud over a number of years, the consequences continue to grow more dire as each of them seeks not just to outwit the other man, but to destroy him.

Though not his most spectacle-oriented movie, "The Prestige" is still often ranked as one of Christopher Nolan's best movies to this very day. There's a very good reason for that, as it's an inventive, stylish, dark, and twisted thriller with an ending for the ages.

Warner Bros.

"The Prestige" is also remembered for being at the center of one of those odd examples of "dueling movie" phenomenon. The very same year, "The Illusionist" also hit theaters with a not terribly dissimilar premise, focused on a magician who uses his abilities to secure the love of a woman who is out of his league. Edward Norton led the cast.

But Christopher Nolan won this dueling movies battle. With a $40 million production budget, "The Prestige" made $109 million worldwide. Meanwhile, "The Illusionist" made $88 million, though it also had a smaller budget. In any event, on paper and in terms of ticket sales, Nolan prevailed. And with all due respect to "The Illusionist," only one of these movies remains widely discussed in the here and now. Nolan delivered a movie well worth remembering.

It doesn't matter that one of Nolan's most acclaimed movies was only a modest box office hit. It was a hit nonetheless and an impressive demonstration of his skills as a filmmaker. It gave Warner Bros. even more confidence when it came to him continuing on with the "Batman" franchise. That faith would be rewarded in 2008 as "The Dark Knight" was simply too good to be ignored, becoming a $1 billion global grosser at a time when that rarely happened.

With the benefit of hindsight, this was an important entry in the filmography of one of Hollywood's most beloved commercial filmmakers. He didn't need superhero money to make a banger. He could do it on a more than reasonable budget, getting the most out of his cast and the material along the way.

Warner Bros.

What "The Prestige" helped prove is that Christopher Nolan really had the goods. "Memento" was a truly impressive early work, but any director can get lucky. "Insomnia" was good but not so good that it left no doubt in anyone's minds. "Batman Begins" was a major improvement for that franchise but, again, not a huge hit. This movie helped establish a true pattern, one that has only continued since.

2010's "Inception" was one of the biggest original box office hits ever, one that Nolan made in between installments of his "Dark Knight" trilogy. Let's also not forget that "The Dark Knight Rises" made well over $1 billion and was the biggest DC movie of all time for a good while. "Dunkirk" and "Interstellar" were also huge, non-franchise hits. In 2023, "Oppenheimer" proved that Nolan was one of the all-time best box office bets. He simply doesn't miss.

The one and only time he did "miss" was when Nolan clashed with Warner Bros. on "Tenet" while trying to save the box office. That movie would have undoubtedly met a different fate under better circumstances. In 2026, Nolan delivered "The Odyssey," which has made an astounding $1.78 billion worldwide, becoming one of the highest-grossing movies in history. Directors don't get bigger or more successful.

For that reason, he's likely to continue to make very big movies for as long as he can while the gettin' is good. But let's not forget that if Nolan wanted to make a mid-budget thriller with A-list actors, he could do that as effectively as anyone else working today as well.

You can grab "The Prestige" 4K, Blu-ray, or DVD from Amazon.