Christopher Nolan Movies Ranked: All 12 From Worst to Best

No filmmaker working today turns dense, brain-bending ideas into billion-dollar IMAX events quite like Christopher Nolan. So here are all 12 Christopher Nolan movies ranked worst to best — and we are not hedging on the top spot. After a $6,000 debut, four Batman-adjacent landmarks, and a Best Picture sweep, our best Christopher Nolan movie is The Dark Knight (2008), with Oppenheimer and Memento as the only films with a real claim to dethrone it.

Every entry below is justified with critical scores (Rotten Tomatoes, IMDb), worldwide box office, and a short verdict. Note one thing the takes online keep proving: Nolan has almost no bad films. Only one of his 12 features sits below 73% on the Tomatometer. This is a ranking of great-to-greater.

What are all the Christopher Nolan movies ranked worst to best?

Here is the complete ranking at a glance before we break each one down:

12. Tenet (2020) — RT 70%
13. The Dark Knight Rises (2012) — RT 87%
14. Following (1998) — RT 82%
15. Insomnia (2002) — RT 92%
16. Batman Begins (2005) — RT 85%
17. Dunkirk (2017) — RT 92%
18. Interstellar (2014) — RT 73%
19. The Prestige (2006) — RT 77%
20. Inception (2010) — RT 87%
21. Memento (2000) — RT 94%
22. Oppenheimer (2023) — RT 93%
23. The Dark Knight (2008) — RT 94%

12. Tenet (2020)

Nolan's time-inversion spy thriller is his most divisive film, and the only one to land below 70% with critics. The set pieces — a backward-running car chase, a "temporal pincer" climax — are staggering, but muffled sound mixing and a plot that demands a whiteboard left even fans cold. A pandemic release sank it to roughly $364 million worldwide, a rare miss after a decade of monster hits. On Reddit and Letterboxd it remains the great Nolan argument: cold puzzle or misunderstood gem.

11. The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

The trilogy closer is, paradoxically, Nolan's highest-grossing movie ever at about $1.085 billion. It is grand, emotional, and overstuffed — Bane is a magnetic villain, but plot holes and a baggy midsection keep it below its predecessors. A worthy ending to the most influential superhero saga ever made, just not Nolan operating at his sharpest.

10. Following (1998)

His sub-$6,000, black-and-white debut about a writer who tails strangers is where the entire Nolan playbook begins: scrambled chronology, a twist that recontextualizes everything, and ruthless economy. At 70-odd minutes it is more promise than masterpiece, but as Christopher Nolan's first movie it is essential viewing and astonishingly assured.

9. Insomnia (2002)

Nolan's only studio remake and his most underrated film, a fog-grey Alaskan noir with Al Pacino as a guilt-rotted detective and Robin Williams playing chillingly against type. It is "minor" Nolan only because the competition is brutal — by any other measure, a tense, 92%-rated character study.

8. Batman Begins (2005)

The film that rebuilt the modern blockbuster from the ground up, grounding a comic-book icon in fear, training, and consequence. It paved the road for every gritty reboot since and for The Batman. The sequel eclipses it, but Begins is the brave foundation.

7. Dunkirk (2017)

A nearly dialogue-free WWII survival epic told across three interlocking timelines — land, sea, and air. It is Nolan's most formally daring picture, an experiential gut-punch that proved he could make a tight, 106-minute war film feel as massive as any space opera. It earned him his first Best Director nomination.

6. Interstellar (2014)

The most emotional film Nolan has made, and the one fans defend hardest. Its 73% critic score badly undersells a movie audiences adore — an 8.6 IMDb rating puts it among his very best. The black-hole imagery, the docking sequence, that "Stay" scene — pure awe. If you love this one, see our best sci-fi movies of the 21st century.

5. The Prestige (2006)

Two rival magicians, one obsessive duel, and a final twist that rewards a second viewing. It is Nolan's most underrated puzzle-box and arguably his most rewatchable, threading sleight-of-hand structure through a story that is itself a magic trick.

4. Inception (2010)

The dreams-within-dreams heist that made "we need to go deeper" a permanent part of the culture. A genuine original blockbuster that is thrilling and intellectually dense at once, it grossed over $830 million and snagged an 8.7 IMDb rating. The folding-city shot and that spinning top still define modern spectacle — and it remains the gold standard for heist movies.

3. Memento (2000)

The film that announced a major voice. Told in two interlocking timelines — one running backward — it forces you to experience the amnesiac hero's confusion in real time. Twenty-five years on it has aged not a day; on Letterboxd and Reddit it is the perennial pick for Nolan's best movie, and at 94% it is tied for his best-reviewed film. The purest expression of his obsession with memory and time.

2. Oppenheimer (2023)

His masterpiece of restraint, and the film that finally won the Academy over. The three-hour biopic of the atomic bomb's architect swept the 2024 Oscars with seven wins, including Best Picture and Nolan's first Best Director — making it the only Nolan film to win Best Picture. It grossed a staggering ~$977 million for an R-rated drama with no action, powered by Cillian Murphy's haunted lead. If you want the full breakdown, read our Oppenheimer review and our Oppenheimer ending explained. For many, this is now the answer to Christopher Nolan's best movie — and we would not argue hard.

1. The Dark Knight (2008)

The peak. The rare superhero film that is simply a great film, full stop. Heath Ledger's posthumous-Oscar-winning Joker is the finest comic-book villain ever committed to screen, and Nolan builds a sprawling crime epic around him with the muscle of Heat. It cleared $1 billion, sits at 94% with a near-perfect 9.0 IMDb rating, and forced the Academy to expand the Best Picture field after its snub. Sixteen years on, nothing in the genre has topped it. That is why it is the best Christopher Nolan movie.

What are all the Christopher Nolan movies in order of release?

For completeness, here is the Christopher Nolan movies list in order of release:

1. Following (1998)
2. Memento (2000)
3. Insomnia (2002)
4. Batman Begins (2005)
5. The Prestige (2006)
6. The Dark Knight (2008)
7. Inception (2010)
8. The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
9. Interstellar (2014)
10. Dunkirk (2017)
11. Tenet (2020)
12. Oppenheimer (2023)
13. The Odyssey (2026) — coming July 17, 2026

Where to watch and what's next

Most of these stream across major platforms, and the Batman trilogy regularly rotates through services; our best sci-fi movies to stream guide is a good companion for the Inception/Interstellar crowd. The big one on the horizon is The Odyssey, Nolan's Universal epic of Homer's poem starring Matt Damon as Odysseus, shot entirely for IMAX and due July 17, 2026. Early buzz suggests it could be his most ambitious film yet — meaning this entire list may need rewriting a year from now. If you like a director's full arc, compare ours with the Denis Villeneuve movies ranked.

The bottom line

Across 12 films, Nolan has no true misfire — even his "worst," Tenet, is a swing most directors could never attempt. The fight for the top is genuinely The Dark Knight vs. Oppenheimer vs. Memento, and reasonable fans land in all three camps. Our verdict stands: The Dark Knight is his best, Oppenheimer his most decorated, and The Odyssey the wild card that could reshuffle everything in 2026.

Further reading: Christopher Nolan on Wikipedia · Where to watch on JustWatch.

Sources

• Christopher Nolan filmography - Wikipedia
• The Dark Knight - Box Office Mojo
• The Dark Knight Rises - Box Office Mojo
• 12 Christopher Nolan Movies, Ranked by Tomatometer - Rotten Tomatoes
• List of accolades received by Oppenheimer - Wikipedia