Is Leonardo DiCaprio’s Favorite Christopher Nolan Movie Streaming Yet? Here’s Where To Look

Leonardo DiCaprio just named his favorite Christopher Nolan movie, and he didn’t go with the brain-bender you might expect. While out promoting his new Paul Thomas Anderson film, the actor told Collider that Nolan’s best, in his book, is the one that actually wears a cape.

DiCaprio’s Nolan pick: yep, it’s The Dark Knight

Talking with Collider’s Steven Weintraub, DiCaprio singled out Nolan’s 2008 Batman epic as his favorite from the director. Honestly, hard to argue. It’s part two of the Dark Knight trilogy and, even beyond the comic-book label, it plays like a muscular crime thriller with a moral spine — the kind of movie that made a lot of people realize superhero films could be something else entirely.

• Title: The Dark Knight
• Year: 2008
• Director: Christopher Nolan
• Main cast: Christian Bale (Batman/Bruce Wayne), Heath Ledger (Joker), Aaron Eckhart (Harvey Dent), Michael Caine (Alfred), Maggie Gyllenhaal (Rachel Dawes), Gary Oldman (Commissioner Gordon), Morgan Freeman (Lucius Fox)
• Genre: Action, crime, thriller
• Runtime: Approximately 152 minutes
• Production: Warner Bros. Pictures, Legendary Pictures
• Streaming (US): HBO Max

He also ran his Spielberg and Kubrick favorites

Weintraub pushed him to go broader too. For Steven Spielberg, DiCaprio said it’s basically impossible to pick given the hit rate, but if he has to choose one, it’s Jaws.

Kubrick was where he really wrestled. He ultimately went with 2001: A Space Odyssey, but he couldn’t help name-dropping the others that live rent-free in his head: A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket, and Barry Lyndon. He even shared a very Leo cinephile memory about seeing 2001 the right way:

"Clockwork [Orange], The Shining. I just watched Full Metal Jacket the other day... Barry Lyndon’s incredible. There are too many to pick. But 2001, for me, I remember watching it for the first time on VHS, but then I got to see it at the Cinerama Dome. Christopher Nolan found the original film and projected it at the Cinerama Dome with the original sound. Talk about a movie that was so ahead of its time. It’s just incredible. Beyond the movie, it’s kind of a spiritual experience."

Meanwhile, his new PTA movie is a critical smash that’s bleeding cash

The reason DiCaprio was doing the interview in the first place: Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, adapted from Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland. It’s written and directed by Anderson, and the reviews are stellar — 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, a 4.3/5 on Letterboxd, and 8.2/10 on IMDb. At the box office, it has already pulled in over $196.8 million worldwide and is on track to crack $200 million, which would make it Anderson’s highest-grosser ever, per Variety.

Here’s the weird part: despite that haul, the movie is still on pace to lose money theatrically. With a production budget north of $130 million and more than $70 million spent on marketing, plus the standard 50-50 split on ticket sales between studios and theaters (again, per Variety), the film is looking at an estimated $100 million loss during its theatrical run.

The saving grace: this is the kind of acclaimed title that tends to live a long second life. Warner Bros. may not see much more in the immediate weeks from theaters, but the long tail — Blu-ray, streaming, TV — should do some heavy lifting.

One Battle After Another is in theaters now.

The Dark Knight is streaming on HBO Max in the United States.