ALTHOUGH he is no longer making franchise films after wrapping up The Dark Knight trilogy, Christopher Nolan is defending the roles of similar big franchises in Hollywood.

“There’s always a balance in Hollywood between established titles that can assure a return to the audience and give people more of what they want,” Nolan said in a recent Associated Press interview.

“That’s always been a big part of the economics of Hollywood, and it pays for a lot of other types of films to be made and distributed.”

The director of Oppenheimer and Interstellar also went on to address the fact that, despite franchises needing to exist, audiences also desire and expect something different from films.

“One of the big thrills of going to the movies is, frankly, seeing a trailer for a movie you’ve never heard of or a type of movie you haven’t seen. A healthy ecosystem in Hollywood is about a balance between the two things and always has been.”

In a possible attempt at toeing the line, Nolan’s comments came after Martin Scorcese told GQ in September that filmmakers like the two of them should “fight back stronger” against big film franchises, like comic book films, to “save cinema.”

“It’s got to come from the grassroots level. It has to come from the filmmakers themselves,” Scorsese said. “And you’ll have, you know, filmmakers like the Safdie brothers and Nolan, you know what I mean? And hit ’em from all sides. Hit ’em from all sides and don’t give up. Let’s see what you get. Go out there and do it. Go reinvent.”