Batman VS Superman At The Box Office: Thanks To Christopher Nolan, The Caped Crusader Has Almost 63% Higher Collection Than Man Of Steel With A Total $4 Billion+ Global Revenue
With eight films, the Batman Franchise has grossed over $4 billion at the box office.
Batman VS Superman At The Box Office ( Photo Credit – Facebook )
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Batman and Superman are the cinema’s two longest-standing comic-book franchises. Despite their eight-decade history, the DC universe superheroes have come up short against the Marvel Juggernauts. Since the DC universe doesn’t stand a chance against the MCU’s over $30 billion worldwide revenue, we decided to compare DC’s in-house franchises. Batman is leading at the worldwide box office by a significant margin despite Superman’s long history in Hollywood.
With eight films, the Batman Franchise has grossed over $4 billion at the box office. Meanwhile, Superman, with six films, has earned nearly $1.7 billion. The Batman franchise has almost a 63% success rate compared to the Superman franchise, thanks to Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy, which made over $2.5 billion at the worldwide box office.
Superman was one of the first superheroes to make his big-screen debut. One of the most iconic comic book characters was first brought to life outside the comics in 1941 in a 15-part serial released weekly theatrical episodes. The first 58-minute Superman feature film, Superman and The Mole Men was released in theaters in 1951. The box office information is unavailable.
However, the 1978 film Superman changed the character forever and paved the way for future superhero films in the industry. The film, starring Christopher Reeve, made over $300 million at the box office against a production budget of $55 million. The first film’s success spawned three sequels, which couldn’t mirror the box office success of the first film, collectively earning just over $300 million.
After Christopher Reeve’s Superman IV earned a humiliating $36 million at the box office, the iconic hero took a long break from the big screens for nearly twenty years. Warner Bros. rebooted the franchise in 2006 after the success of Tim Burton’s Batman franchise in the early 1990s. The film, with Brandon Routh as Superman, grossed over $300 million.
The modest box office performance resulted in the studio dumping a 2009 sequel. Instead, they rebooted the Franchise with Henry Cavill as Superman in Man of Steel. It’s the highest-grossing standalone Superman film to date.
Let’s take a look at Superman’s box office performance.
Superman (1978) – $300.2 Million
Superman II (1981) – $190.4 Million
Superman III (1983) – $80.2 Million
Superman IV (1987) – $36.7 Million
Superman Returns (2006) – $391 Million
Man Of Steel (2013) – $667.9 Milion
Meanwhile, the caped crusader made his big screen debut in the 1966 Batman: The Movie film. Box office information for Adam West’s Batman is unavailable. However, Tim Burton’s Batman Franchise redefined the character and spawned several films tailored around the Caped Crusader.
The 1989 film starring Michael Keaton as Batman grossed over $400 million. The sequel Batman Returns underperformed, earning over $250 million. Burton returned to the next Batman film as a producer. Batman Forever, starring Val Kilmer as the caped crusader, took the franchise back to its lighthearted roots, with Jim Carrey playing the Riddler.
The film was a box office success, earning over $300 million. However, the follow-up Batman & Robin bombed, earning over $200 million. Warner Bros shelved the project for years before Christopher Nolan agreed to direct the next set of Batman Films with Christin Bale in the lead. Nolan changed the superhero game forever by creating three critically acclaimed and commercially successful films. Christopher Nolan’s Batman reboot consists of two films to cross the $1 billion mark.
Let’s take a look at Batman’s box office performance.
Batman (1989) – $411.3 Million
Batman Returns (1992) – $266.8 Million
Batman Forever (1995) – $336.5 Million
Batman & Robin (1997) – $238.3 Million
Batman Begins (2005) – $356.7 Million
The Dark Knight (2008) – $1.007 Billion
The Dark Knight Rises (2012) $1.08 Billion
The Batman (2022) – $765.9 Million
Note: Box office numbers are based on estimates and various sources. Koimoi has not independently verified them.
