I'll do two ranks - one from best to worst and one from favorite to least favorite. I'm also going to include Mask of the Phantasm since it was technically released in theatres.
Best to Worst:
1. The Dark Knight
2. Mask of the Phantasm
3. Batman Begins
4. Batman (1989) / Batman Forever / The Dark Knight Rises
6. Batman Returns
7. Batman & Robin
I didn't count the 1966 film because I don't think you can compare it to the rest. It's not a bad film (quite a well done one actually); it's just different. Sure that the rest also vary in terms of what they were trying to accomplish, but they're still CBM flicks as we know them. CBM's as we know them don't debut until 1978.
As for why I ranked 3 of them together, it isn't because I think they're all tied. Rather, I often struggle ranking them in order and I think they're all around the same range. They're all just ok IMO. Nothing horrible but nothing too good either.
Favorite to Least Favorite:
1. Mask of the Phantasm
2. The Dark Knight
3. Batman Begins
4. Batman Forever
5. Batman (1989)
6. The Dark Knight Rises
7. Batman (1966) (included it this time since we're going by just favorites)
8. Batman Returns
9. Batman & Robin
MOTP was a huge part of my childhood. If I could count it as a BTAS episode, it would easily be my favorite. Maybe even my favorite DCAU story in general. I love its take on Batman, its take on the origin, its themes regarding Batman, its iconic images (i.e. Bruce putting on the mask), and the list just goes on. Most importantly, I love Andrea and her relationship with Bruce. I love the way it explores Bruce's love, both pre-Batman and post-Batman, and how it shows the parallels. It's really odd that almost nothing from this film ever continued into the DCAU, yet I constantly felt Andrea's presence and the film's events have an emotional impact on Bruce as all the Bruce Timm shows progressed.
TDK is self-explanatory. Nothing to add that wasn't stated before.
BB is hands-down the best superhero origin film. It isn't just a great character study on Bruce Wayne, but also one of the best explorations I've ever seen of the theme of fear - of what makes people afraid, how they can overcome it, how they can use it against others, etc. We don't just see Bruce use it in his one-man crusade, but various other characters as well. We see Ra's use it the same way but to a far greater extreme, there is obviously Scarecrow (who should have had a bigger role but I digress), we see Falcone using it to control Gotham, etc. It's a lot smaller and more personal than TDK, which also makes it feel very different (in a good way). It's a very underrated film IMO. Even today, it still lives in TDK's shadow to a certain degree.
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