Batmania: 1989

[fixer79]

I remember I was on holiday in Westende, Belgium when the movie came out. While lying on the beach, I saw a plane towing a huge banner with the bat logo flying through the air.
I never saw a promo-stunt like that for another movie.

 

[Catman]

I could've sworn that I posted something in this thread. I guess this thread has been done so many times that I'm thinking of another one.

 

[Cobblepot]

I'm a fan of Prince's music but I agree that he doesn't really fit Batman. It was Nicholson's suggestion & WB felt it was a good idea so it was what it was. I was underwhelmed with his songs on the soundtrack. The only ones I actually liked where Scandalous, Electric Chair & The Future. I have to admit though that Partyman & Trust were used well in the film.

Are you kidding me?
Prince, Burton, Nicholson and Keaton made this a blockbuster!

 

[Batman_Fan_2000]

Batattack, I agree with those who have said this was bigger than the Spiderman films. It was bigger, marketing-wise, than anything any of us had seen up to that point. And I was 17, the perfect age to be absorbing everything releated to Bat-mania. I had really loved the Adam West reruns as a young kid, and I felt that the rest of the world had finally caught up and realized what I'd long known: Batman ruled. I still recall when, months before the film's release, I took an issue of Starlog to school with me which included nice shots of Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson in costume. Since there was no internet in those days, we had to rely on print, and USA Today also gave the film quite a bit of coverage, reporting on the excitement the trailer was generating. Both Keaton and West were featured in Rolling Stone magazine (Keaton, dressed in a tux as Wayne, made the cover). Guys at my school, even the jocks who were normally too cool for such things, saw the Starlog and were like, 'Whoa! That looks awesome!' It was something everyone was looking forward to.

As for Prince's music, "Batdance" was used in commercials for the inevitable revival of the West series, which every local tv affiliate began airing again that summer. It was amusing indeed to see West and Cesar Romero fighting while Prince's music played. Then someone took it a step further and remixed Batdance, replacing all the Batman '89 soundbites with audio samples from Batman '66! That actually got radio play; it was Prince's original music with changes such Kim Basinger's "Vicki Vale" line being replaced by West saying, "Miss Kitka".

Between June and December (yup, in Houston, it was still playing in a few theaters in December), I saw the film a total of 8 times. After the film had been out in theaters awhile, WB issued a new tv spot which intercut footage from the film with the words:

"How many times...

Have you seen...

[Batsymbol]"

THAT was cool.

 

[Nepenthes]

i had so much batman stuff in 89. my favourite was a yellow bandana with little bat logos all over it. you could actually get shiiit like that back then! come to think of it, i was much cooler when I was six

 

[NolGoyHater]

I got a 1989 warner bros. catalog that I bought on eBay today. Lots of interesting merchandise. There was a special edition Prince batman soundtrack in a round glossy back case with a raised bat-logo on the top.

I have one. I found it at a local used bookstore for like $8 2 years ago. It was made and released in England if I recall correctly. The CD is black and dark charcoal grey with the Bat symbol in it. Inside is a little circle shaped flip book and behind it is a nice black spongy pad so the CD and booklette don't flop around. A really cool thing.

I was 9 when B89 came out and didn't see anything or know about it until one weeknight my family was watching tv and on came the trailer. My brother and I immediately got our favorite blankets out wrapped them around our shoulders. We were swimmers so we had our Speedos on all the time. So with the capes on we felt like Batman. I begged and begged my parents to take us when it came out. They said we'll see it on your birthday (July 15th). My parents had a bad habit of going to the movies way to late and the movie was out of the theaters already. Looking back that might have been for the movies that we wanted to see and they didn't. LOL!!! Anyway, so I said sadly it won't be in theaters anymore by then. We all saw it again in mid August. How wrong I was.

I also remember everywhere you looked was something with Batman. We went to a fabric store and they had Batman fabric. They had a key chain rack, those big rotating ones full of only Batman key chains. That is where I saw my first Grey and Black Batman. I thought it was cool.

For my birthday I had $40 in Birthday money to spend I wanted to blow it all on Batman toys. So my mom took my brother, cousin, and I to target. They were completely sold out of Batman toys. I mean nothing was there. Not even the lame Joker van or Bob the goon. I have never scene this before or since, but they had a Rain check booth set up just for Batman toys. I made my mom out down rainchecks for Batman the Joker, Batwing and Batmobile for us 3 to buy when they got them in again. But this kid asked us if we were looking for Batman toys to go down the street to Smittys they had tons. He just went there and showed us his Batman figure he pulled out from his fanny pack. Totally kick ass. Needless to say, we went over there and we 3 each got our Batman and Joker figures.

God Batmania was awesome!!!! I do hope to god that the world can experience it again one day in my lifetime.

 

[The-Dark-Knight]

I have one. I found it at a local used bookstore for like $8 2 years ago. It was made and released in England if I recall correctly. The CD is black and dark charcoal grey with the Bat symbol in it. Inside is a little circle shaped flip book and behind it is a nice black spongy pad so the CD and booklette don't flop around. A really cool thing.

I was 9 when B89 came out and didn't see anything or know about it until one weeknight my family was watching tv and on came the trailer. My brother and I immediately got our favorite blankets out wrapped them around our shoulders. We were swimmers so we had our Speedos on all the time. So with the capes on we felt like Batman. I begged and begged my parents to take us when it came out. They said we'll see it on your birthday (July 15th). My parents had a bad habit of going to the movies way to late and the movie was out of the theaters already. Looking back that might have been for the movies that we wanted to see and they didn't. LOL!!! Anyway, so I said sadly it won't be in theaters anymore by then. We all saw it again in mid August. How wrong I was.

I also remember everywhere you looked was something with Batman. We went to a fabric store and they had Batman fabric. They had a key chain rack, those big rotating ones full of only Batman key chains. That is where I saw my first Grey and Black Batman. I thought it was cool.

For my birthday I had $40 in Birthday money to spend I wanted to blow it all on Batman toys. So my mom took my brother, cousin, and I to target. They were completely sold out of Batman toys. I mean nothing was there. Not even the lame Joker van or Bob the goon. I have never scene this before or since, but they had a Rain check booth set up just for Batman toys. I made my mom out down rainchecks for Batman the Joker, Batwing and Batmobile for us 3 to buy when they got them in again. But this kid asked us if we were looking for Batman toys to go down the street to Smittys they had tons. He just went there and showed us his Batman figure he pulled out from his fanny pack. Totally kick ass. Needless to say, we went over there and we 3 each got our Batman and Joker figures.

God Batmania was awesome!!!! I do hope to god that the world can experience it again one day in my lifetime.

Great story, sadly i never experienced Batman in the cinema (the only one i havent seen on the big screen so far)

 

[kooguy911]

its hard to believe its almost batman 89's 20th aniversery

 

[Bat Attack]

The movie isn't even 18 years old yet. But it's getting there...

 

[SideSkroll]

I can't believe there's a group like this I LOVED Batman... I still watch it from time to time... Would any of you happen to know anything about a fanedit DVD that was floating around the net sometime ago? I think it was called "Batman 1989 superhero hype" or something like that? It had all of the interviews, ads, trailers etc from that era.. I'd love to get a hold of that. If you have any idea of what I'm talking about would you please send me a message. Even if you only have the name of it. It would help a LOT.
Thanks.

PS: Sorry for reviving a very, VERY old thread but I'm looking for this DVD everywhere with no luck... Besides, this should stay alive for years to come

PS2: it is 20 years old now xD Funny how time goes by...

 

[Two-Face]

Batman 89 is 20 years old now. I love this movie very comic booky from Kane/Finger eras.

 

[Fresh Prince]

Batman89 was more popular in 1989 then TDK was in 2008.

 

[Two-Face]

I don't wanna get into this as I love both movies I don't care which was popular.

 

[Two-Face]

I can't believe there's a group like this I LOVED Batman... I still watch it from time to time... Would any of you happen to know anything about a fanedit DVD that was floating around the net sometime ago? I think it was called "Batman 1989 superhero hype" or something like that? It had all of the interviews, ads, trailers etc from that era.. I'd love to get a hold of that. If you have any idea of what I'm talking about would you please send me a message. Even if you only have the name of it. It would help a LOT.
Thanks.

PS: Sorry for reviving a very, VERY old thread but I'm looking for this DVD everywhere with no luck... Besides, this should stay alive for years to come

PS2: it is 20 years old now xD Funny how time goes by...

Welcome to the Hype.

 

[SideSkroll]

Happy to be here... But still, I can't find that DVD I mentioned before... And after reading some of the pages on this thread I came across one that mentioned something about some screens of that DVD.... But that was 4 years ago
Damn it! I can't find the damn DVD... I knew I should've downloaded it when I found it...

 

[TruerToTheCore]

I've made my peace with this movie some time ago.

 

[mothy]

from what i have heard, batman (1989) was on a completely different level of anticipation. it must have been insane. in terms of pure hype, the dark knight came close to it, but not quite.

 

[SideSkroll]

And you've heard correctly. It was ****1ng INSANE... Good times... I even had Batman underwear xD. Anything about the DVD I'm looking for?

 

[Bruce Malone]

from what i have heard, batman (1989) was on a completely different level of anticipation. it must have been insane. in terms of pure hype, the dark knight came close to it, but not quite.

Maybe but even in terms of inflation the dark knight sold more tickets than the original Batman. # of Tickets sold is a good way to gauge the popularity of a film aside from dealing with inflation. Like how gone with the wind only made 198 million unadgusted to titanics 600 milllion but sold over 202 miilion tickets to titanics 128 million tickets sold.

Batman sold 62,954,600 tix to the dark knights 80,765,300 tix. Begins sold 34,560,700 tix.

 

[El Payaso]

Maybe but even in terms of inflation the dark knight sold more tickets than the original Batman. # of Tickets sold is a good way to gauge the popularity of a film aside from dealing with inflation. Like how gone with the wind only made 198 million unadgusted to titanics 600 milllion but sold over 202 miilion tickets to titanics 128 million tickets sold.

Batman sold 62,954,600 tix to the dark knights 80,765,300 tix. Begins sold 34,560,700 tix.

Mothy talked specifically about anticipation only, not BO numbers.

One of the reasons was that back in 1989 there weren't 5 superhero movies released every year and 20 more being announced. We had Superman and that's it. But I have to mention the Joker as another gigantic reason. The names of Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger were huge magnets for people, specially Ledger who become another legend by dying so young having such a great talent just before the release of the film.



But yes, I remember perfectly the time and it was incredible; everything was Batman and had the bat-logo somewhere.

 

[TruerToTheCore]

The hype was great, TDK was nothing compared to it. The bat logo was everywhere.

 

[mikey1974]

nothing before,or since has comapred to it...the closest was in 1999 with SW Episode I...

bat-stuff was freaking EVERYWHERE! on buses,on Taxi's (seriously!) ...toys,cereal,trading cards,sticker albums,magazines,books,candy....nowadays,this stuff is pretty much a given with any "hot" new movie coming out...but back then,we never saw anything quite like it...

i remember going into Spencer gifts that May (right after seeing Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,where i also got to see the Batman trailer in full,glorious widescreen! ) and literally 3/4 of the store was Bat-stuff...plush dolls,shirts,,hats,sweaters (in May!),books,posters, those neon light up sign's,temporary tatoos, you name it...

of course,i bought as much of it as i could...i remember bugging my parents to buy this Batman cereal we never got because it had a Keaton plastic bank shrinkwrapped to the package,with the face and batsymbol being stickers...

a somewhat funny memory...that night when i see Indy,i went to Spencer's and got a plush 12" Batman by Applause and the batsymbol movie one-sheet poster...

...then went to TRU and they had the Toy Biz Batman figures there,so i got all 3 (Bats,joker,and Bob the Goon)

...then i came home and watched the 60's Batman film,which was on Channel 9.....so the night started off with Indiana Jones,and ended being nearly all Batman!