Christopher Nolan has slammed Netflix for not releasing their exclusive movies in cinemas.

Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan

Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan

The 46-year-old filmmaker - who is currently promoting his new war epic 'Dunkirk' - has admitted that he doesn't understand why the streaming site doesn't send its own exclusive movies to cinemas.

Speaking to Indiewire, Nolan said: "Netflix has a bizarre aversion to supporting theatrical films.

"They have this mindless policy of everything having to be simultaneously streamed and released, which is obviously an untenable model for theatrical presentation.

"So they're not even getting in the game, and I think they're missing a huge opportunity."

Netflix has enjoyed considerable success over the recent years with its own exclusive movies, dating back to the launch of 'Beasts of No Nation' back in 2015.

However, unlike its rival streaming site Amazon Prime, Netflix doesn't send its movies to cinemas prior to their release, reasoning that its subscribers would be "unhappy" if content wasn't available at the same time.

Christopher believes Netflix is used as a kind of way to shut down cinemas.

He said: "I think the investment that Netflix is putting into interesting filmmakers and interesting projects would be more admirable if it weren't being used as some kind of bizarre leverage against shutting down theatres.

"It's so pointless. I don't really get it."

The director's comments come after the he admitted he wants people to see 'Dunkirk' in IMAX.

He explained: "The tone of the film is really about immersion, it's really about first-person experience. There's very little dialogue in the film.

"The idea is you jump right in and you're almost a participant in what's going on. And so I wanted the clearest, most real, most tactile sensibility for everything in the film, including the visual effects. And so we sourced real planes, real boats."