Batman Begins Why wasn't Begins more Profitable?

[Two-Face]

TDK made a lot of money for the same reasons why Titanic, Pirates, Harry Potter, and Twilight did. It's all about teenage sex appeal for girls. Heath Ledger was a teen heart throb already, and his death catapulted TDK into box office history. Teenage girls have the most disposable income.

If they want Batman 3 to make a lot of money, just have Zac Efron be Robin, and make sure to give him a lethal 8 ball mixed with sedatives before the premiere.

That is so wrong.

 

[solidsnake86]

In order to put up big numbers at the box office you need to get everyone and there mothers going to see it. Just think of titanic, everyone bashes it but I bet that people went to go watch that movie with there families. Same with TDK, everyone who had no interest in batman films went to go see that because of the hype and unfortunate circumstances around it. To put up big numbers you need to get the interest of the General Audience.

Batman Begins dealt with different issues, you can't honestly tell me that Nolan and bale are household names, nobody knows gary oldman by name because he's one of those actors that go unrecognized. Not everyone sits on the internet and cares about movies and researches actors and directors, heck, go ask some random person on the street and they probably wouldnt be able to tell you who nolan is even after TDK. Thats why on the inception posters it says "from the director of the dark knight" because you need to spoon feed that info to people. For what begins was up against I think it did well, not to mention its opening weekend wasn't that big because the movie opened on wednesday, had it opened on friday it would have had a 70 million opening weekend and that looks better on paper.

Movies are successful or failures based on perception, superman had decent reviews and made similar money to begins and was considered a flop, its all about context. I was watching biography on bale and begins was refered to as a mega hit.

 

[kmrbeckman]

Not sure if someone mentioned this but ... I think that Begins didn't do so well, in addition to the actors and director not being well known by the public, because Begins was rebooting the franchise and was just coming off the past of Schumacher's botched movies. I think that because Schumacher's films were so bad, many batfans and moviegoers were jaded after seeing what the past had produced and were reticent to see Begins.

 

[redfirebird2008]

From a marketing aspect, WB screwed the pooch. They even admitted as such when they fired their entire marketing department at the end of 2006. After two straight summer tentpoles (Batman Begins, Superman Returns) underperformed thanks in part to poor marketing, they cleaned house. And you could see an immediate turnaround with their new marketing team. 300 had excellent marketing and ended up being a HUGE hit compared to its relatively low budget in spring 2007. Then a year later TDK had incredible marketing as well.

 

[Travesty]

From a marketing aspect, WB screwed the pooch. They even admitted as such when they fired their entire marketing department at the end of 2006. After two straight summer tentpoles (Batman Begins, Superman Returns) underperformed thanks in part to poor marketing, they cleaned house. And you could see an immediate turnaround with their new marketing team. 300 had excellent marketing and ended up being a HUGE hit compared to its relatively low budget in spring 2007. Then a year later TDK had incredible marketing as well.

100% agree. BB had little, to no, marketing for a Batman movie, and TDK had a TON more, and happens to be some of the best marketing I have seen to this day. I had SO much fun with TDK marketing/virals, that it was almost hard to keep up with, but at the same time, made you want to keep coming for more, which, is the very definition of what marketing is trying to come off as. I enjoyed the marketing of TDK more then I did the friggin movie, as I'm not trying to underplay that, cause I thought the marketing was just genius, and I was happy to be apart of it.

 

[redfirebird2008]

100% agree. BB had little, to no, marketing for a Batman movie, and TDK had a TON more, and happens to be some of the best marketing I have seen to this day. I had SO much fun with TDK marketing/virals, that it was almost hard to keep up with, but at the same time, made you want to keep coming for more, which, is the very definition of what marketing is trying to come off as. I enjoyed the marketing of TDK more then I did the friggin movie, as I'm not trying to underplay that, cause I thought the marketing was just genius, and I was happy to be apart of it.

Yep, I felt the marketing was better than the movie too. The movie was good, but there are many good movies. There are very few movies that have had a marketing campaign like that, especially from a fan interaction standpoint. Strictly from a trailers standpoint, I really feel that Trailer 2 (December 2007) is one of the best movie trailers ever. I felt that way as soon as I first saw that crappy little bootleg of it. Ledger's performance was that good. Just edit some of his one-liners together and you've got yourself a kickass trailer. Throw in some explosions and some awesome music at the end...and yeah, simply awesome stuff. And then Ledger died a month later, which just fueled the hype even more given how Ledger-centric the trailer was.

 

[3atman]

You can't say that Ledger is what made TDK all it's money. I have this theory, if a movie does great in the first week, that's good marketing, if the movie starts out average and stays awhile and sells a lot of DVDs, it's bad marketing and a good movie. if a movie starts out hot in the box office and stays that way and has huge DVD sales, then it's a great movie with great marketing. That's pretty much all you need to know to know why BB didn't do as well. Plus all the obvious points the other guys on here pointed out.

 

[Tacit Ronin]

You can't say that Ledger is what made TDK all it's money. I have this theory, if a movie does great in the first week, that's good marketing, if the movie starts out average and stays awhile and sells a lot of DVDs, it's bad marketing and a good movie. if a movie starts out hot in the box office and stays that way and has huge DVD sales, then it's a great movie with great marketing. That's pretty much all you need to know to know why BB didn't do as well. Plus all the obvious points the other guys on here pointed out.

You're right. Spidey 3 and the Dark Knight pretty much have the same opening weekends. But look at their final domestic grosses.

 

[Ace of Knaves]

I think Ledgers death boosted the opening weekend and week sales. It obviously got all the mums and whoever else doesn't give a toss about Batman or crime films in seats.

But to have the legs and get the eventual 1 billion mark can't be placed on Ledger.

 

[VenomVsSpidey]

You're right. Spidey 3 and the Dark Knight pretty much have the same opening weekends. But look at their final domestic grosses.

TDK didn't gross MUCH more than SM3 did...

 

[3atman]

what about DVD sales though? Spider-Man 3 didn't do what the industry thought it'd do in DVD sales because the movie sucked. Also, TDK did 100 million better in box office, which, when you look at it like "1,000,000,000 to 890,000,00" doesn't look like much, but when you think that it made 55 Double Dragons more in box office, then it seems more impressive.

 

[Tacit Ronin]

TDK didn't gross MUCH more than SM3 did...

Spiderman 3 - 336 million

The Dark Knight - 530 million.

This is from pretty much the same opening weekends.

 

[VenomVsSpidey]

what about DVD sales though? Spider-Man 3 didn't do what the industry thought it'd do in DVD sales because the movie sucked. Also, TDK did 100 million better in box office, which, when you look at it like "1,000,000,000 to 890,000,00" doesn't look like much, but when you think that it made 55 Double Dragons more in box office, then it seems more impressive.

Just because it didn't do as well as anticipated doesnt mean it sucked. Look at wolverine - it's pretty much hated by everyone (I am not in this., I liked it) but look at the DVD sales. that SOB sold like no other.

 

[Doc Samson]

I'm tired of everyone saying Ledger's death is what got the hype started. While it played a huge role in TDK's appeal to the general public, of course, I think people forget that it was really his portrayal that garnered media attention in the first place. The first leaked photo started a pretty big buzz by itself just because it was so different.

Then in December, when the 1st full trailer, that is when the whole thing turned into a fever pitch. I remember seeing clips of the trailer all over tv before it opened with 'I am legend', and in fact, it probably had a lot to do with that movies revenue to a certain extent, at least on opening weekend. All this happened before Heath died, so I think we should acknowledge that TDK was incredibly anticipated before that, and would've been huge in spite of it.

Like others mentioned, the viral marketing was crucial, and something BB lacked. But also, the character of the Joker made it possible for that style of marketing anyway. There aren't many characters that you could create that same kind of package around, certainly not Scarecrow or Ras.

After B&R, they played BB pretty close to the chest just to see if the interest was still there. After word of mouth, BB gained momentum, and the franchise as well. It was the springboard, so naturally, the profits wouldn't be where they probably should have. And I can guarantee, even if the quality is nowhere near TDK or BB, the third film will open just as big, if not bigger, off of reputation alone. Just look at Spiderman 3...

 

[solidsnake86]

Although the viral marketing was a great idea I think many of you are placing way to much emphasis on its impact. Realistically the only people who were involved were batman fans to begin with and were going to watch the film anyways. Probably 80% of the people who participated are members of this board. The viral marketing was only crucial because it kept fanboys from complaining about when the first trailer was going to arrive which ended up being december.

 

[3atman]

Well, the viral marketing is one thing, the awesome trailers and TV spots also had a lot to do with it.

 

[Travesty]

Although the viral marketing was a great idea I think many of you are placing way to much emphasis on its impact. Realistically the only people who were involved were batman fans to begin with and were going to watch the film anyways. Probably 80% of the people who participated are members of this board. The viral marketing was only crucial because it kept fanboys from complaining about when the first trailer was going to arrive which ended up being december.

Hehe, but that's the entire point to viral marketing. It's directed towards the fans, and then the fans will tell ordinary Joes. Sometimes, word of mouth works better then some flashy trailer, and this has been proven time and time again, that viral marketing catches the attention of the fanboys, who then, will spread the word to others. It's supposed to spread like a virus

 

[solidsnake86]

^Good point, but I doubt it really did all that much in the grand scheme of things. They didnt really need fans to spread the word. The trailers and tv spots are the most important thing. The use of the joker, arguably one of the most well known villains of all time had even more to do with it. As sad as it is you can throw on top of that, CNN was basically playing the trailer for free after ledger's death as well as many other news sources and it turned into an advertising mammoth.

 

[Mach2Infinity]

Me too. Plot-holes like a microwave emitter that vaporizes water everywhere but from human bodies AND bad one-liners are not a good combination.

Remember the 'microwave emitter' used focused emitters to project it delicacy of destruction.

 

[Mr. Earle]

Why wasn't Begins more Profitable?

1) Schumacher debacle.
2) Superhero movies werent so popular back then.
3) Not so great marketing as TDK.
4) I am sad to say this, but Heath's death helped TDK's box office.
5) Most people didnt know of Nolan or Bale back then. Now they re big names that people trust with their 8 dollars (or whatever a ticket costs in america).
6) Because it didnt have a successful, critically acclaimed prequel like TDK had Begins.