Fans are wondering if DC officially announces The Batman 2 at some point soon. The movie did something that Batman fans have never seen on the big screen, which is actually depicting him as The World’s Greatest Detective, and it was rewarded greatly for it at the box office.
The 2022 movie had so much going against it, but it ended up being a big payday for Warner Bros. It’s interesting to see where the film sits among other movies in the franchise when adjusted for inflation, and there are some interesting results. Batman is one of the studio’s most lucrative franchises, and even the series’ failures are still not actually that unsuccessful, especially when taking inflation into account.
The LEGO Batman Movie (2017) – $377.2 Million
Being released in 2017, The LEGO Batman Movie is still relatively new, so there isn’t a huge difference between its original box office gross and the adjusted number. There are positive and negative ways to look at that box office gross. On the one hand, the film had a lower budget compared to other animated movies and there’s no way $377 million is a bad result. But, on the other hand, the 2017 movie is both a sequel to The LEGO Movie and a part of one of the biggest franchises of all time.
Not only that, but a family-friendly four-quadrant Batman movie had the potential to make so much more, especially given that most Batman movies around that time were almost overbearingly dour and gritty. But its marginal underperformance could also be down to the audience’s fatigue with the LEGO movie series. While The LEGO Movie made $468 million, its sequel made a devastating $192 million, not to mention The LEGO Ninjago Movie’s $123 million gross.
Batman & Robin (1997) – $439.7 Million
Between George Clooney as Bruce Wayne and the iconic depiction of Poison Ivy, Batman & Robin is totally underrated. But, at the time, most fans thought the film was a two-hour-long toy commercial, and Warner Bros. wasn’t pulling the wool over their eyes. Batman & Robin massively underperformed at the box office and it killed the movie franchise for eight years.
While $439.7 million isn’t a reason for Warner Bros. to completely shelve its most lucrative property, it is when taking into account the inflated budget. The movie cost $160 million to make, and that’s not even including the marketing costs and the movie theatres’ cut, and it isn’t adjusted for inflation either. So, when taking all of that into account, the 1997 movie is one that most likely still hasn’t broken even with sales of digital and physical copies, and it’s a film that the studio would rather forget.
Batman Returns (1992) – $563.6 Million
Tim Burton changed Hollywood with his 1989 Batman movie, and he turned the masked vigilante into a brand. Few movies were as eventful as that film at the time. But despite having so much horsepower behind it, the follow-up, Batman Returns, didn’t do anywhere near as well at the box office. And now, adjusted for inflation, the gap is even wider, as Batman made over $420 million more than the 1992 sequel.
$563 million is still an impressive number, but the movie ultimately didn’t do the numbers that its predecessor did due to how much darker it was and how it was geared to more mature audiences. Unsurprisingly, parents didn’t want to take their kids to see a movie where the villain is a perverted sleazeball who bites people’s noses off.
Batman Begins (2005) – $566.8 Million
After the terrible reception of Batman & Robin, it was almost as if Warner Bros. was scared to touch the character ever again. There wasn’t a Batman movie for eight years, but when The Caped Crusader returned, he did so in style. Director Christopher Nolan delivered a dark, gritty, and realistic version of the character that fans had wanted for years.
However, even though it’s considered one of the best Batman movies and has the best origin story, it’d didn’t do huge numbers at the box office. Between people’s hesitance after Batman & Robin and the film not featuring any iconic villains, it was almost as if Nolan had to prove himself to potential audiences before they’d show up in droves.
Batman Forever (1995) – $654.2 Million
When it comes to the critical consensus, Batman Forever was the beginning of the end of the character in the 1990s, as the anthology series started to become more toy sales-oriented. However, when it comes to the box office gross, it’s one of the most successful of the four 90s movies, and that’s because of an ingenious trick up Warner Bros.’ sleeve.
Interestingly, what the 90s movies did so well was cast bankable stars in the villain role, such as Jack Nicholson as the Joker, and Arnold Schwarzenegger even had top billing over George Clooney on the posters for Batman & Robin. And Batman Forever was no different, as Jim Carrey played the theatrical and eccentric Riddler. Carrey was the key to the movie’s success more than anything else, as 1995 was the height of his popularity, and the Riddler was the perfect vehicle for the comedy actor to deliver his typical over-the-top performances.
The Batman (2022) – $770.8 Million
The Batman was released this year, so the box office figure hasn’t changed whatsoever. The new film is the best movie of 2022 so far because of how pitch black dark it is and how the epic mystery thriller unfolds over the course of three hours. But those are also the reasons why the film failed to reach the billion-dollar mark.
It has a runtime of 175 minutes, which means that it obviously didn’t get screened as many times as a two-hour movie would, and that leads to fewer ticket sales. Not to mention that not everyone is willing to sit through such a long movie. And the film is so dark that it isn’t suitable for younger audiences, as it pushes the boundaries of the PG-13 rating. However, given all those setbacks, The Batman performed great at the box office, and it outdid Batman Begins, the first movie in Nolan’s trilogy, by over $200 million.
Batman (1989) – $983.3 Million
After making $411 million in 1989, Batman is closing in on $983 million when adjusted for inflation. The movie redefined Batman and completely changed audiences’ perception of the character, not to mention that it showed studios what could be done with comic book properties.
The studio didn’t just make hundreds of millions off the movie, but it has made hundreds of millions, and maybe billions, more with the merchandise. Burton turned the character into a brand, as the yellow and black Bat symbol became instantly iconic, and fans had the logo printed on T-shirts and even belt buckles. The logo became a fashion accessory to the point where the movie was almost secondary.
Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice (2016) – $1.078 Billion
When Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was first released, it grossed $873 million, which was a huge upset and surely shocked studio heads at Warner Bros. Something must have gone wrong if a Batman and Superman crossover movie didn’t reach a billion dollars. Dawn of Justice had an amazing concept, it was just executed poorly and tried doing too many things at once.
However, after six years, adjusted for inflation, the 2016 movie finally crossed the 11-digit number. And the movie would have made millions more with the Ultimate Edition, which is a physical director’s cut with 31 additional minutes.
The Dark Knight (2008) – $1.384 Billion
2008’s The Dark Knight had so many things going for it, whether it was the success of Batman Begins, the incredible marketing, or the word of mouth of Heath Ledger’s amazing performance of the Joker. And while Warner Bros. feels like it has to shoehorn the Clown Prince of Crime into every Batman-related release, the villain hadn’t actually been on the big screen in 19 years.
The film featured the first depiction of the Joker since Jack Nicholson, and everybody had to watch the movie just to see how the two performances compare. The result was an Oscar win for Ledger (despite fans being skeptical about the casting) and one of the biggest box office successes of the 2000s. Joker stole the spotlight from Batman, and that’s mostly why The Dark Knight was the first ever superhero movie to gross over a billion dollars.
The Dark Knight Rises (2012) – $1.395 Billion
The Dark Knight Rises only marginally beat The Dark Knight when it comes to box office figures, which is both surprising and not surprising at all. The 2012 film is the epic conclusion to the Dark Knight trilogy, so anybody would think that it’d blow its predecessors out of the water. But, at the same time, the movie doesn’t feature the Joker, and there obviously wasn’t as much intrigue surrounding Tom Hardy’s casting as Bane.
However, the film was hyped to no end when it was released, and despite its many plot holes, The Dark Knight Rises became the highest-grossing Batman movie of all time. And 10 years later, it hasn’t been beaten even when inflation isn’t taken into account.