Every Batman Movie, Ranked by Box Office

Summary

Batman movies have been very successful, with The Dark Knight Rises holding the title of the highest-grossing Batman movie ever made.
Each Batman movie has its own unique tone, from the dark and brooding to the campy and colorful, appealing to different audiences.
The Batman franchise continues to evolve with new directors and actors, attracting fans with fresh interpretations of the iconic character.

The iconic Caped Crusader himself, Batman has left his mark on the box office, and plenty of reboots prove just how powerful and popular this DC Comics icon is. Batman movies have been abundant over the years, and with Andy Muschietti and Matt Reeves set to make their own distinct versions of Batman by 2026, fans know that it’s a great time to be a Batman fan.

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By Jake Fillery

With Batman featuring in over a dozen and more movies, it’s worth looking back at the box office results to see what is the highest-grossing Batman movie ever made. Batman’s success is undeniable, but how does he hold out against an industry brimming with superheroes?

10 Batman & Robin

Worldwide Gross: $238,225,195

Release Date: 27 June 1997
Director: Joel Schumacher
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score: 12%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 16%

Batman and Robin once again burst onto the scene, and their relationship as father and ward, and two heroes attempting to save Gotham City, is tried and tested through Poison Ivy’s seductive ways and Mister Freeze’s diabolical plot to turn Gotham City into the catalyst for a new ice age.

The lowest-grossing live-action Batman movie is Batman & Robin, and that’s not exactly surprising. Batman & Robin lives on in pop culture, but mainly as a thesis on what audiences don’t want. Whilst many want campish tones in terms of colorful outfits, that doesn’t mean bat-nipples and a story that just can’t be taken seriously, which leaves Batman & Robin more as a parody of 1966’s Batman, than a continuation of Tim Burton’s universe.

9 Batman Returns

Worldwide Gross: $266,831,698

Release Date: 10 July 1992
Director: Tim Burton
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score: 82%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 73%

Batman Returns features Michael Keaton once again as Batman, who continues to protect Gotham City from tyranny. The newest threat is a deformed and hateful man going by the Penguin, who has an army of wacky goons that seek to wreak havoc across Gotham, all whilst seductive threats of Catwoman scratch her way into the scene.

Batman Returns wasn’t a flop, but it was a disappointment in terms of financial gain. Batman Returns failed to capitalize on the predecessor, and some might argue that the movie was simply too dark to warrant audiences returning to theaters.

8 The Lego Batman Movie

Worldwide Gross: $312,150,384

Release Date: 4 February 2017
Director: Chris McKay
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score: 90%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 80%

The Lego version of Bruce Wayne oozes cool, and his Batman persona is as dark and brooding as ever. The Lego Batman Movie pokes fun at Batman in loving ways, and has him face off against his library of villains, all whilst Joker tries to get his attention, and he deals with accidentally becoming the father of the orphaned Dick Grayson who wants to become Batman’s sidekick.

Everyone might have expected The Lego Batman Movie to make more money, since after all, it combined two gigantic properties: Lego and Batman. Unfortunately, The LEGO Batman Movie was trapped in the $300,000,000 mark, which is a shame for its quality, but 2017 was a big year for comic book movies, and Batman’s draw is usually from his brooding drama rather than his comedic flaws present in Lego form.

7 Batman Forever

Worldwide Gross: $336,529,144

Release Date: 14 July 1995
Director: Joel Schumacher
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score: 41%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 32%

Batman Forever pairs the Dark Knight with Robin as they battle against Two-Face and the Riddler, two new criminal faces in Gotham City that are set to flip the fate of Batman’s city at the flip of a coin. Batman Forever takes strong themes and explorations of Batman’s psyche, but editing and pacing issues squander Val Kilmer’s potential.

dark knight rises, batman beyond, gotham city imposters

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By Jake Fillery

Batman Forever is a bold reinvention of the character, but one that doesn’t work in some parts. Some still demand to see Joel Schumacher’s true vision with the Schumacher cut of Batman Forever, but the movie audiences got, it’s no surprise made less than previous movies. It was more camp and fun, and a lack of Michael Keaton in the role might have deterred the potential for Val Kilmer’s stint in the batsuit.

6 Batman Begins

Worldwide Gross: $373,443,774

Release Date: 16 June 2005
Director: Christopher Nolan
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score: 85%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 94%

Another Batman reboot sees Bruce Wayne’s parents mercilessly gunned down in the street, which causes a traumatized and youthful Bruce Wayne to begin his journey to become the defender that Gotham City needs. Batman Begins is an exploration of Batman’s origin and an investigation into secret societies that keep Gotham under heel.

As yet another Batman reboot, and a tainted image from Batman & Robin, Batman Begins didn’t make that much money, and failed to even reach $400,000,000. For a comic book movie in 2024, that’s not so great, but Warner Bros. Decided that it was enough for Batman Begins to deserve a sequel. The movie definitely did well with Batman and deserves its sequel thanks to its darker tone and more realistic approach to Bruce Wayne’s tragedy and his turn at Batman.

5 Batman

Worldwide Gross: $401,188,924

Release Date: 11 August 1989
Director: Tim Burton
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score: 77%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 84%

Batman begins his war on crime to save Gotham City, but he is quickly faced against a polar opposite adversary: The Joker. A brooding Dark Knight versus a homicidal Clown Prince of Crime is a battle for the ages, and 1989’s Batman brings Batman into the dark, brooding, and black tones that are familiar to most modern audiences, doing away with the camp of the 60s.

Batman was a bold reboot of the character that certainly worked, as the movie made over $400,000,000 in 1989. Accounting for inflation, that’s a billion-dollar movie. The risk of having comedic actor Michael Keaton in the role paid off, and Tim Burton’s wonderfully gothic world for Gotham City helped make Batman (1989) the staple to look to in Batman’s live-action mythos, and who could ever forget Jack Nicholson as the Joker?

4 The Batman

Worldwide Gross: $772,245,583

Release Date: 4 March 2022
Director: Matt Reeves
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score: 85%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 87%

A grittier reboot takes hold, and this world’s Batman is faced against a sadistic serial killer who has struck fear into the hearts of Gotham’s most elite circles due to his targeted killings of political figures. Batman investigates the claustrophobic and hopeless city of Gotham to find the identity of the Riddler and uncover the corruption within his own family in Matt Reeve’s electrifying Batman reboot.

The Batman may not have reached a billion dollars for a 2022 movie, but it still reached incredible heights, especially when one considers the time it took to make this movie. Plagued by the shifts in the DCEU and the exit from Ben Affleck, The Batman took a risk with Robert Pattinson that certainly paid off as something bold and new. The dark tone helps Batman, and perhaps the trust the film creates with audiences will see an even larger audience for The Batman Part 2.

3 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Worldwide Gross: $874,360,194

Release Date: 25 March 2016
Director: Zack Snyder
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score: 29%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 63%

An older and grizzled Batman is fearful of the potential of Superman, an alien who has the power to wipe out the planet should he choose to. This forces a confrontation between Batman and Superman, which puts into question the moral code of Batman, all whilst Superman struggles with his identity in a world that seems to resent him or worship him. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice brings forth heavy themes of politics and philosophy into a comic book movie, and it works for the most part.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was the first time that audiences would witness Batman and Superman on screen in live-action, so it’s no surprise that the movie made so much money. However, despite this milestone, Batman v Superman failed to hit a billion dollars, and reviews from fans and critics alike were not too positive, which is why perhaps some audiences refused to turn up to the movie or didn’t want to see it again.

2 The Dark Knight

Worldwide Gross: $1,003,845,358

Release Date: 21 July 2008
Director: Christopher Nolan
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score: 94%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 94%

Christian Bale returns as Batman, and this time he is faced with Gotham’s fiercest foe. The Joker enters Gotham City, hellbent on wreaking havoc and chaos to turn the people of Gotham against the Caped Crusader and begin a wild goose chase for the police. The Dark Knight works as more than just a superhero movie and elevates the genre into dramatic thrillers that would forever change the scope of a comic book movie.

The Dark Knight is masterful, and its $1 billion worldwide gross for 2008 is astronomical, especially when one considers how for 2008, this was one of the few movies to reach this milestone. The Dark Knight easily made this money simply by being a must-see film at the time, and who doesn’t want to jump into theaters to watch Batman against the Joker?

1 The Dark Knight Rises

Worldwide Gross: $1,084,939,099

Release Date: 20 July 2012
Director: Cristopher Nolan
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score: 87%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 90%

Bruce Wayne gave up the identity of Batman for eight years, but even in his withering body, he is forced to come back to the city he loves after the masked man, Bane, becomes an imposing threat that promises to wreak terrorism across Gotham City. With Batman forced into the cape and cowl again, The Dark Knight Rises promises to be the ultimate finale to Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy.

The Dark Knight Rises only made a tad more than The Dark Knight, but it’s still the highest-grossing Batman movie ever made. It’s no surprise that audiences swarmed theaters, as this was the final part of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, and the last time audiences would see Christian Bale in the cowl. Perhaps this movie could have made even more, but it was competing with the likes of The Avengers and had its small share of issues in terms of plot inconsistencies and a hard-to-understand villain.

Source: Box Office Mojo