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. 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.
