More influential movie: Batman (1989) vs The Dark Knight (2008)

[Axl Van Sixx]

Batman '89. Without it, there is no Batman Begins or The Dark Knight. It influenced Hollywood's entire business model to this day and pioneered the presentation of superheroes as "dark and gritty".

 

[Batmannerism]

Hmmmm..... I'd have to agree with those who say that Batman 1989 made TDK possible - although you could also argue that Batman and Robin made TDK possible by being so awful that a completely different direction was needed for Batman.

 

[Frodo]

B89 made it possible to have a serious and dark approach to Batman on film in general.

Batman and Robin made it possible for the franchise to be rebooted which led specially to TDK.

In a "What If " scenario, If Batman and Robin is a bigger hit , and the film goes down well with critics , the history of Batman in the movies is very different.

Batman 5 would have gone into production likely with Schumacer at the helm in 1998, with a 1999 release. Clooney, O'Donnell, and Silverstone would have likely returned along with Harley Quinn and Scarecrow as the villains.

That film was originally intended to be darker, but there's nothing to say that WB couldn't have insisted the films stay the course on the lighter campier tone of BF and B&R ,since those films were successes.

I think the Burton/Schumacer franchise would have eventually fatigued anyway, but Batman and Robin being a popular certainly changes the course of not only Clooney's career, but would no doubt prevents Chris Nolan from getting anywhere close to the Batman franchise in the 00s.

If that happens, there is no TDK trilogy. I think the Batman films would have been rebooted and would have returned to a darker tone, but they wouldn't be Nolan's films.

But that's all Earth 2 speculation.