To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Richard Kelly’s surreal cult classicDonnie Darko, The Ringer has compiled an oral history of the movie that revealsChristopher Nolan’s integral rolein getting the movie into theaters. WhenDonnie Darkopremiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2001, it was overshadowed by Nolan’s amnesia thrillerMemento, so Kelly had a tough time finding a distributor. Four months after the Sundance premiere, the director still hadn’t secured a distribution deal for his film and it was looking like it might never make it to multiplexes.
At the same time, Nolan wasfinding massive success withMemento. His future wife Emma Thomas had passed on the script to Aaron Ryder, a friend of hers who was working at Newmarket Films, and he loved it so much that he agreed to finance production for $4.5 million. When Nolan similarly failed to land a distribution deal, Newmarket decided to just distribute it themselves. Thanks to positive word of mouth,Mementobecame a small hit with a $25 million North American box office haul, so Nolan was comfortably in the good grace of Newmarket executives.
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DespiteMemento’s success witha complicated nonlinear narrative and dark themes,Donnie Darkostill couldn’t find a home with the same elements. No one wanted to pay to distribute a movie they didn’t understand and Kelly was pressured to make the movie a half-hour shorter. The director told The Ringer that things were “looking really grim” for his debut feature.
Ryder decided to take another chance onDonnie Darkoand arranged a screening with a few other Newmarket executives and also invited Nolan and Thomas along. The duo had a lot of clout with Newmarket’s top brass following the success ofMemento. According to Kelly, “When the lights came up, Chris and his wife both turned to the Newmarket executives, Chris Ball and Will Tyrer, and they both looked over at them and they nodded. They were like, ‘You guys should distribute this.’”
Based on Nolan’s affinity for the movie, Newmarket decided to pull the trigger on distributingDonnie Darkothemselves. They initially wanted to gostraight to home media, but Drew Barrymore – who produced the movie through her production company Flower Films in addition to co-starring – managed to convince them to give the movie a theatrical release.
Unfortunately, by the time thatDonnie Darkofinally did get a theatrical run around the Halloween season in 2001, the 9/11 attacks had taken place. This put a movie that revolves around a plane crash – and featured one heavily in its trailers – in a very awkward position. So,Donnie Darkoflopped at the box officeand wouldn’t be considered a hit until it found a cult audience years later. But if it hadn’t been for Christopher Nolan, it might not have been released at all.
