Billion Dollar Batman

by Bruce Scivally

  The trailer and one-sheet of Batman Returns were revealed on February 19 at a Warner Bros. luncheon at the ShoWest convention in Las Vegas, one day before the film completed principal photography.138 By the time filming ended, the budget had ballooned, with some estimates putting the revised cost at $80 million, nearly double the budget of the first film.139 Denise Di Novi felt the expenditures were justified. “I don’t think anybody dares to dream of producing a movie like this,” she said. “What was exciting to me about this movie was not only that it’s such an extravaganza— which is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity—but it’s not merely big for big’s sake. It’s marrying artistic genius with scope, which is a rare thing.”140 On February 21, the trailer and one-sheet were released to more than 5,000 theaters.141

  While fans were getting their first look at the new Batman, special effects supervisor Michael Fink set to work coordinating the film’s 115 effects shots, half of which were computer-generated. Video Images created the digital bats that swoop through Gotham City, while Boss Film added digital penguins to the Penguin’s underground lair. There were, in fact, only thirty-six actual penguins used in the film; the others seen on-screen were either computer generated or were radio-controlled puppets built by Stan Winston’s creature shop.142

  Danny Elfman returned to do the film’s score, which this time featured only one pop song, heard when Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle are dancing in a ballroom scene and also during the end credits. The song, “Face to Face” was composed by English rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees in collaboration with Elfman, and featured lyrics that alluded to the attraction Wayne and Kyle felt for each other. Released as a single on July 13, 1992, the song peaked at number 21 on the UK singles chart, and number 7 on the U.S. Modern Rock Tracks chart. An album of Elfman’s score was released on June 23, four days after the film hit theaters.

  Elfman’s score and the bangs and booms of the soundtrack would be heard by moviegoers in a revolutionary way. Batman Returns was the first film released in Dolby Laboratories’ Dolby Digital technology. Originally known as Dolby Surround Digital, the crystal-clear sound system began the digital theatrical playback revolution.143 During the next five years, the Dolby Digital system would be installed in over 9,000 auditoriums worldwide.144

  As Batman Returns neared release, deals were signed with 130 licensees, 100 fewer than for Batman. Still, a $45 million promotional blitz was anticipated. Most of the tie-in toys were produced by Kenner Products, whose representative Krickett Neumann said, “It will be impossible not to know we’re around.”145 Among the Bat items flooding the market were Batman, Penguin and Catwoman action figures, radio-controlled Batmobiles, and a Batcave Command Center playset.146 There were Batman boxer shorts, snowboards, cookie cutters, cologne, rub-on tattoos, sweatshirts, swimsuits, sunglasses and sleeping bags.147 Wilton Industries of Woodridge, Illinois made Batman Returns cake pans and cookie cutters. Norca Industries produced Batman cross-country skis. Street Kids Corporation of Los Angeles made Batman tortilla chips. Avon produced Batman shampoo, liquid soap, bubble bath and a gift set with a nailbrush, face scrub and sponge. Six Flags theme parks opened Batman attractions, including a Batman rollercoaster ride.148 The inclusion of Catwoman allowed manufacturers to target teenage girls and young women with a girls’ sleepwear line and women’s dresses.149 Los Angeles apparel company Chorus Line introduced a “sexy, club-dressing” line of Catwoman clothing, based on the form- fitting outfits worn by Michelle Pfeiffer in the film; Macy’s, Bullock’s and Robinson’s displayed the fashions in boutiques decorated as Bat Caves.150 For the woman who had everything, there were even Cat Woman chaise lounges complete with whip holders.151 Karine Joret, director of marketing and public relations for Warner Bros. Consumer Products, called Batman Returns “our big bazooka this summer.”152

  Adding to the Batman blitz, GoodTimes Home Video released the 1943 Batman serial in a two-VHS tape set, with each tape retailing for $9.95. In a concession to the politically correct tenor of the times, the narrator’s anti-Japanese slurs were edited out of the home video. The company also released the 1949 Batman and Robin serial on two VHS tapes, again for $9.95 each. Warner Home Video got into the game with their release of 1968’s Batman-Superman Hour, retailing for $14.98, and Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman for $24.98. For fans of the 1960s TV series, Playhouse Video released the 1966 Batman movie on VHS for $19.98.153 As videotape had proliferated, the price for individual cassettes had dropped dramatically from a few years previously.

  To make sure the market wasn’t flooded with counterfeit merchandise, Warner Bros. and DC Comics contracted United States Banknote Corporation’s subsidiary, American Bank Note Holographic Inc., to supply holographic stickers and hangtags to denote official Batman Returns merchandise. Paul Levitz, executive vice president and publisher of DC Comics, said, “This is the first time that a full-scale merchandising program has used full 3-D holograms either attached or applied to licensed products across every category. This program offers two distinct benefits: it assures retailers and consumers that they are buying an authentic licensed product; and it adds an enticing value to the product, since these high-visual-impact holograms are sure to become collectibles.”154 The licensees were ordered not to make the Bat items available until June 1, about three weeks before the film’s June 19 opening, to avoid early consumer burnout.155 Since Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito, and Michelle Pfeiffer had authorized their likenesses to be used in the merchandising, they were all poised to have Jack Nicholson-type paydays. A Warner Bros. spokesman said, “We funneled everything through them. We wanted to keep everyone happy.”’ Nonetheless, Michael Keaton found the promotional barrage a little unsettling, saying in a press junket interview, “It’s so huge that you don’t relate to it. When you look at them, you get these moments where you go, ‘Geez, that’s me. I did that. I was in this. I am this guy,’ and you get these little flashes of, ‘This is pretty strange.’”156

  While the studio was being generous with the stars, not everyone was feeling included in the fiscal bonanza generated by the Batman films. On March 26, 1992, three months before the release of Batman Returns, executive producers Benjamin Melniker and Michael Uslan sued Warner Bros. for breach of contract, claiming the studio was cheating them out of millions of dollars by refusing to pay them the thirteen percent of the profits they were entitled to from the first Batman movie.157 According to Warners’ bookkeeping, Batman, despite worldwide earnings of over $285 million, was $20 million in the red. Melniker and Uslan said Warner Bros. owed them at least $8 million combined, but had only paid them a total of $400,000 over three years. When settlement talks between Pierce O’Donnell, the attorney for Melniker and Uslan, and Warner Bros. chairman Robert Daly and general counsel John Schulman broke down after seven months, the producers filed their suit. Melniker and Uslan also sued Jon Peters and Peter Guber, who collectively had received $20 million in profits from Batman, in a separate breach-of-contract action.158 Warners immediately released a statement saying that Melniker and Uslan had “no claim whatsoever,” adding, “Warner Bros. stands firmly behind its position that the monies were paid strictly in accordance with the signed contracts between the various parties.” In their suit against the studio, Melniker and Uslan contended that they were forced to sign a modified contract that stripped them of artistic and financial rights just before Batman went into production. Had they not signed the contract, according to the suit, they would not have received their executive producer credits on Batman. In exchange for the credit, they surrendered their portion of the film’s “gross profits,” receiving “net profits” instead.159 The producers asserted the contract was invalid because they had been forced to sign it under “economic duress.” For attorney Pierce O’Donnell, this was a continuation of the fight he’d begun waging against the studios and their questionable accounting practices. Shortly before the Batman lawsuit was filed, O’Donnell had concluded a case against Paramount Pictures, in which he represented columnist Art Buchwald a
nd producer Alain Bernheim, who had come up with the idea for the 1988 Eddie Murphy comedy Coming to America only to have the concept stolen. Buchwald and Bernheim were awarded $900,000 after the judge in the case found language in their contract to be “unconscionable.” Similar language was in the Warner Bros. contract with Melniker and Uslan. O’Donnell said, “This picks up where Buchwald left off. It shows people are still willing to battle over these unconscionable contracts.”

  According to Warner Bros. net profit statement of the Batman earnings, out of the more than $285 million Batman had brought in by the end of 1991, $88.9 million was deducted as a distribution fee, $60 million for advertising, publicity, prints, freight and taxes, $120.9 million for production costs, and $14.1 million for interest, leaving the film $20.2 million in the red. O’Donnell disputed the studio’s figures, saying the film’s real earnings were nearer to $425 million if all the video revenues were included.160 It would be another two years before the case would come to trial.

  Out of deference to Danny DeVito, the Batman Returns press junket was held in Chicago. By that time, DeVito had moved on to directing the biopic Hoffa, with Jack Nicholson playing the union leader whose demise remains an unsolved mystery. The press junket afforded Michael Keaton his first opportunity to see the completed film, with all of the opticals and special effects finished. Impressed, he said “Tim’s handprints are all over this movie.”161 Burton himself admitted that he liked Batman Returns better than Batman, which “came out a little harsh.”162 Following the Chicago press junket, Keaton returned to Los Angeles, where on June 15, 1992, he left his foot- and handprints in the forecourt of Mann’s Chinese Theater163

  Audiences were bowled over by the film as well, and by Pfeiffer’s turn as Catwoman. During one preview screening, European journalists were startled when a man in the front row cried out, “She’s hot! She’s really hot! Aooooow! Man, that chick is hot!”164

  Prior to the film’s opening, Warner Bros. spent about $12 million to promote it, with around $8 million going to network and spot TV, $3 million to print and $1 million to outdoor billboards and bus shelters.165

  Batman Returns premiered June 16, 1992 in Los Angeles. On Thursday the 18th, 1,256 theaters previewed the film in late-night screenings.166 The screenings brought in $2 million, just behind the $2.2 million Batman earned the night before its opening. Jack Holland, AMC marketing VP, commented on the chain’s computerized ticket presales, saying, “This is the best response we’ve ever had. On Basic Instinct and Lethal Weapon 3 we had a lot of activity—and this is doing three to four times what they did.”167 When the film opened on 2,600 screens nationwide the next day, it played to sell-out crowds.168 Its opening weekend, the film set a new record, earning $45,687,771.169 In its first 11 days or release, it grossed $100 million, making it only the second movie in history to reach that point so quickly, Batman being the first.170 “We had so much riding on Batman Returns because it’s not just a movie, it’s an industry,” said Robert A. Daly, chairman and chief executive of Warner Bros. Inc. “Once we saw the movie play before an audience, we became confident.”171

  As with the first Batman, the critical reviews were mixed. In his Daily Variety review, Todd McCarthy wrote, “On all counts, Batman Returns is a monster. Follow-up to the sixth-highest-grossing film of all time has the same dark allure that drew audiences in three years ago. But many non-fans of the initial outing will find this sequel superior in several respects, meaning that Tim Burton’s latest exercise in fabulist dementia should receive even stronger across-the-board acceptance than the original...Batman’s new adversaries—Penguin and Catwoman—are both fascinating creations, wonderfully played. And much of the film, particularly the first half, is massively inventive and spiked with fresh, perverse humor...Like its predecessor, Batman Returns is one big glob story wise, without a strong dramatic arc and propelled by weak narrative muscles.”172

  Janet Maslin, in The New York Times, wrote, “Mr. Burton’s new Batman Returns is as sprightly as its predecessor was sluggish, and it succeeds in banishing much of the dourness and tedium that made the first film such an ordeal. Indeed, allowing for a ceiling on viewers’ interest as to just what can transpire between cartoon characters like Batman and the Penguin, Batman Returns is often an unexpectedly droll creation. It stands as evidence that movie properties, like this story’s enchantingly mixed-up Catwoman, really can have multiple lives... the upright hero Bruce Wayne, a.k.a. Batman (Michael Keaton), is easily overlooked amid all the toys and troublemakers that surround him. This Batman, with motives and magical powers that are never made interesting, is at best a cipher and at worst a black hole.”173

  In California, Kenneth Turan of The Los Angeles Times wrote, “Burton’s Toys ‘R’ Us style of filmmaking leaves us hungry for something, anything more,” while The Orange County Register’s Jim Emerson called the film “entertaining without being compelling or involving.” David Schultz of Chicago’s Metro News found the film “very moody, with more colorful characters,” but noticed “it takes two villains to make one Jack Nicholson.” In Washington, D.C., Gary Arnold of The Washington Times called the film “a solemn, morbid, oppressive rattletrap of an adventure fantasy.” Desson How of The Washington Post had a more positive view, however, writing, “To come out of the summer haze and enter the dark (and cool) wonder is a pleasure not to be denied.”174

  BRICKBATS

  As Batman Returns raced toward a $100 million gross, protests began to escalate. Lured by the Batman toys in McDonald’s Happy Meals, which were marketed to children ages 1 through 10, kids pressed their parents to take them to the PG-13-rated movie. They were horrified by the Penguin, his plot to kidnap children, and the electrocution of Max Shreck, among other disturbing images. Parents complained, writing letters to Warner Bros. and to newspapers. NBC reporter Faith Daniels refused to take her 5-year-old son, and devoted a segment of her talk show, A Closer Look With Faith Daniels, to “Parents Against Batman Returns.” Said Daniels, “It’s fine to make Batman Returns an adult film, but don’t market it to kids. It’s rated PG-13, but who’s buying the action toys? Not 13-year-olds.” A spokesman for a Michigan-based non-sectarian Christian organization, the Dove Foundation, said, “Parents trust McDonald’s, so why is McDonald’s promoting a movie to little kids that’s filled with gratuitous graphic violence?”

  Stung by the criticism, McDonald’s spokeswoman Rebecca Caruso said, “The objective of the (Happy Meal) program was to allow young people to experience the fun of Batman the character. It was not designed to promote attendance at the movie. It was certainly not our intent to confuse parents or disappoint children.”’ McDonald’s failed to explain how they were promoting the character in general and not the movie specifically when their Happy Meal toys included play scenes featuring Penguin in his Arctic World and Catwoman at a masquerade ball, and when the chain was offering discount coupons on Batman Returns merchandise at J.C. Penney stores.175 For their part, a Warner Bros. spokesman said the Happy Meal promotion was tied to the Batman character but not specifically to the movie, saying the Happy Meals did not “provide actual toys from the movie,” adding, “Clearly Batman is not meant for 5-year-olds. As for whether it’s appropriate to Happy Meals, that’s up to McDonald’s. We don’t tell them their business.” Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan wrote, “If I had small kids, I wouldn’t want them to see the movie.”’ Apparently, other parents agreed; in its first four weeks, Batman Returns earned $141 million, but exhibitors began to worry when grosses dropped between 44% and 46% in its second, third and fourth weeks.176

  Despite the controversy, Tim Burton said, “I really like the film...I like it better than the first one. There was a big backlash that it was too dark, but I found this movie much less dark than the first one. It’s just the cultural climate...I think the culture is much more disturbed and disturbing than this movie, a lot more. But they just fixate on things and they choose targets.”177

  By the time it ended its run, B
atman Returns grossed $162.83 million in the U.S. and $104 million internationally, for a combined worldwide gross of $266.83 million. Although it was the third highest-grossing film released in the U.S. that year, Warner Bros. hoped for more. And with the negative publicity arising from the sharp critical reaction against the film’s violent and disturbing images, they began to rethink how Batman should be presented, and by whom.

  ________________________________

  1 Salisbury, Mark, editor, Burton on Burton, © 1995 Faber & Faber Ltd., United Kingdom, p. 113

  2 Spillman, Susan, “`Batman II’ is in Wings,” USA Today, June 28, 1989, p. 1.A

  3 —, “Short Subject: ‘Batman’ Sequel May Fly as Early as Next Summer,” Providence (R.I.) Journal, July 23, 1989, p. I-1

  4 Smith, Liz, “Holy Bombshell! Madonna Wants a Part in `Batman II’; Orange County Register, Aug. 16, 1989, p. L.04

  5 Renaud, Linda, “LA Clips: Batman 2 Waits in the Wings, Along With a Flock of Villains,” The Toronto Globe and Mail, July 21, 1989, p. C.3

  6 Shapiro, Marc, “Dark Knight Director,” Starlog #180, July 1992, p. 41

  7 —, “Cursed Movie?” Syracuse Herald-Journal, Friday, June 19, 1992

  8 Interview with Michael Uslan, conducted Sept. 1, 2009

  9 Lipper, Hal, “A Cat, a Bat and a Diabolical, Dirty Bird.” St. Petersburg Times, June 19, 1992, pg. 21

  10 Fabrikant, Geraldine, “Sony and Warner Settle Suit Over Producers,” The New York Times, Nov 17, 1989, p. D.1

  11 Nasr, Constantine, producer, “Shadows of the Bat: The Cinematic Saga of the Dark Knight—Dark Side of the Knight,” Batman Returns DVD, New Wave Entertainment, © 2005 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.