The reason the 89 movie was so successful was because no-one knew what a serious live action Batman movie would be like, and that trailer made it look ten times better than what it really was. People flocked to that movie because of the hype.
They got hyped because it's Batman. If audiences didn't care about Batman they wouldn't have gotten hyped...which goes back to my original point. TDK was a mega-success because it's Batman.
If they had loved it that much Batman Returns would have made more money.
Batman Returns was affected by soccer moms who complained about the violence. And, yet, it still managed to be the most successful movie of the summer and the third highest grossing film of the year. Not bad for a flick that upset watch-dog groups. And, by the way,
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, the sequel to the mega-hit
Raiders of the Lost Ark, went through the exact same situation. It was cinema deja vu.
The reason Batman Forever made more money than BR was because of the audience built up by 3 yrs of the animated series on prime time.
To begin with, B:TAS didn't last three years on primetime. It lasted like a few months in 1992. It spent most of its run in FOX's afternoon line-up. Secondly,
Batman Forever is like the polar opposite of that show which you can tell by just watching the trailer. Fans of the show weren't excited for this movie. The movie was a success (#1 for summer, #2 for the year) because kids loved it and their parents (who grew up on Adam West) loved it as well.
The GA may have enjoyed the first three movies, but they never loved them, never had the affection for them that they had for the first two Superman movies.
Audiences have always enjoyed Batman more than Superman. You can tell based on hype. The first
Superman, as successful as it was, got beaten at the box office by
Grease. Grease! The sequel was released a week after
Raiders of the Lost Ark and suffered a lot because of it. In other words, people were more excited for the latest Steven Spielberg/George Lucas creation than Superman. Then, there's
Superman III,
IV, and
Returns which had little to no hype. Batman, on the other hand, has always been a hype machine. 4 out of the 6 installments broke the opening weekend box office record. 4 out of the 6 dominated their summer. 2 out of the 6 dominated in their year. And,
Batman & Robin, believe it or not, had a very impressive opening weekend of $42 million. Adjusted for inflation, that's even better than
Batman Begins. And, yet, the movie managed to flop which is a reminder of the impact that word-of-mouth has.
Hulk in 2003 also suffered from poor word-of-mouth. Cinema deja vu strikes again.
the first people I ever heard give unbashed love for the Burton movies was on this site.
Really?
if the series was that loved, there would have been a big adverse reaction in the mainstream press to Keaton being replaced by Kilmer, as there would have been if Reeve was replaced after SMII, but there wasn't
Batman Returns was very controversial because of its violence. Burton and Keaton being replaced made sense and people expected it. That's why there wasn't a big fuss.