Christopher Nolan has a habit of making big, expensive movies. Luckily, they're usually huge box office successes, so the old adage of "spend money to make money" rings true.
Sometimes, though, Nolan isn't content with making millions at the box office, so he finds another way to make money…while he's filming.
Take Interstellar, for instance, which cost $165 million to make. Though a good portion of the film takes place in outer space, Matthew McConaughey's character is a corn farmer, so shooting in a cornfield was necessary.
Rather than venture out to middle America, Nolan insisted a cornfield be built from scratch. And he sought advice from Man of Steel director Zach Snyder, who had built a couple hundred acres for his own movie.
Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for SBIFF
Nolan asked Snyder how much corn he could realistically make. The answer? A whole lot. As Nolan tells it:
"We found that where we wanted to build our farmhouse really close to the mountains [outside] Calgary. In the end, we got a pretty good crop, and we actually made money on this."
That's right – after filming ended, Nolan and the production crew sold off the corn they had made for their movie. Perhaps they were able to charge a premium since this was corn that interacted with McConaughey. That's a pretty big deal.
Ultimately, Interstellar made more than $675 million at the box office – even more if you factor in corn sales. Not many movies have vegetables as part of their profits.
