actually, I'm gonna scratch my normal question because it's painfully obvious and ask how much it would have done if released after TDK.

Date Title Studio Lifetime Gross / Theaters Opening / Theaters
7/16/10 Inception WB $197,603,131 3,792 $62,785,337 3,792
7/18/08 The Dark Knight WB $533,345,358 4,366 $158,411,483 4,366
10/20/06 The Prestige BV $53,089,891 2,305 $14,801,808 2,281
6/15/05 Batman Begins WB $205,343,774 3,858 $48,745,440 3,858
5/24/02 Insomnia WB $67,355,513 2,610 $20,930,169 2,610
3/16/01 Memento NM $25,544,867 531 $235,488 11
4/2/99 Following Zeit. $48,482 2 $3,668 1

Obviously even after Batman Begins came out it was viewed as a passion project from Nolan and did 14 million on its opening weekend and ended up hauling 53 million...
TDK comes out and shatters box office records left and right.
Inception is also a passion project over 10 years in the making and opens to a 62 million weekend open.. a box office career high for Leonardo DiCaprio who has starred in Titanic which is #2 in box office receipts in history.

How do you think The Prestige would have done if it came out during this time where Chris Nolan is viewed as the most respected director currently?

I think you would have seen it gross closer to $100M, but it doesn't have the same commercial appeal as Inception so wouldn't have done that well.

yeah.. when people saw the trailers and clips for Inception you can see the epic production value of it from the States to Mombassa and such

With The Prestige you can literally convert it into a play without changing much, the production felt so closed.

I think my guess would be about $150 million worldwide if it were to be opening now.

It would have probably grossed about 100 million in the USA and another 100 million overseas at max, if it had been released after The Dark Knight. Nolan had a lot of fans long before The Dark Knight, but it was the stupendous success of the Batman sequel that brought him hordes of fanboys. And it would have probably gotten better reviews, too. I still can't its score at Rotten Tomatoes is so low.

The Dark Knight brought in a massive Nolan fanbase, myself included. So yea, I definitely would've seen The Prestige in theaters if it was released after and a lot of others would've too.

The box office might have doubled.

Would Prestige been more successful if released after TDK?

Yes

It probably would've. But I don't know why anyone expected box office fire from a period piece drama.

Eternalist wrote:It probably would've. But I don't know why anyone expected box office fire from a period piece drama.

I know it already did very well for its genre. Not to mention it had mixed word of mouth because one viewing isn't always enough to appreciate it.

well the box office will surely increased, only question is how much

but what if the Prestige is made after TDK? where Nolan got a big budget from the studio

will it change anything regarding the movie(set up, story, effects, marketing)?

just brought it up for discussion

Even if it would've increased, it's most definitely found more success on DVD/Blu-ray now that Nolan is a respected director.