Don't get me wrong, Jack. I don't think this film is canon nor do I think it is Miller's Year One. I merely thought Gordon's wife was a nod to Miller's Year One. And I missed the whole "that's a good girl" line. I'll listen out for it when I see the film again.

I don't know what to say - that was perfect from beginning to end. ***** out of five stars - and I haven't said that since FotR.

Exactly - my sister loved it and she isn't too fond of all of the comic book movies that have come out recently. My dad is going to take my mom and I am going to take my wife (I took them both to see Spidey 2 last summer and they both liked it, but they weren't going gah-gah over it either). From the reactions I'm getting from family and friends, I think they just might love it, too.

Dr DVD:With so many comic fans gushing over this I would have expected this movie to do better. But then again, I don't know how much clout internet and comic fan reviews hold.


Stop with the film expected to do better talk lol!!

It's made 71 million since Wednesday.

it's a year of falling ticket sales as well, star wars is a freak, children watch Spiderman more then grown up Batman flicks, Begins is doing ok, have some damn faith with the amercian adult population!

I dunno, I guess it's just looking at the 3-day total alone that makes it seem like it didn't fully go over the fence in doing all that it could potentially or could in expectations.

I mean, Mr. and Mrs. Smith made more in the first weekend. Perhaps if this did open on a friday instead of a wednesday it would have been a larger weekend number.

I would argue there has been no serious Batman movie until Batman Begins. What we got in 89 was a misdirected movie with Mr. Mom in the lead title role who didn't have the stature that should be required to play a role like Batman with an actor hired to play the villian because of his name and the attention it would bring to the movie and a lousy dated sound track with a lot of camp value thrown in. While it was certainly a step up from the 60's series and movie, it wasn't far up enough. We didn't see a great Batman adaptation on screen until it premiered on the small screen in the 90's in the form of the animated series done by Bruce Timm. Batman Begins is the first movie to actually take the Batman mythos seriously.

I think little to none when it comes to the box office success of adapted films. A successful selling comic nowaday is only about 40,000 issues which is pretty pathetic. So really, there is barely anybody reading comics & it's a medium where most that do, post on message boards so it seems like there are tons of them.

I mean look how many people here, whenever a comic book movie comes out, say things like "I'm a huge Batman fan", "I've been following the book for years", yet so few actually post in the comic book threads. Lots of people say they are fans of these characters, when a Bat or Spidey or whatever movie comes out they are psyched for it, but most of them don't actually go out & still buy the comics. There are posts here by guys raving how this movie was made for them, the true Batman fan, they finally got their beloved character right, yet why aren't these same people posting in the comic book threads actually talking about the real on-going story of their beloved character?

So while this is a film that true comic book fans have embraced, the average public doesn't seem to be for whatever reasons. IMO it is b/c of the lack of action & focus on character, which Mr. & Mrs. Smith shows, is sadly not what the public wants.

Clearly Batman will make its money back, but IMO the #s are rather dull, & not what they would have liked for this film to make & certainly not the #s for a film to start a brand new 3 picture franchise as they have already planned.

I would argue there has been no serious Batman movie until Batman Begins. What we got in 89 was a misdirected movie with Mr. Mom in the lead title role who didn't have the stature that should be required to play a role like Batman with an actor hired to play the villian because of his name and the attention it would bring to the movie and a lousy dated sound track with a lot of camp value thrown in. While it was certainly a step up from the 60's series and movie, it wasn't far up enough. We didn't see a great Batman adaptation on screen until it premiered on the small screen in the 90's in the form of the animated series done by Bruce Timm. Batman Begins is the first live action movie to actually take the Batman mythos seriously. I add "live action" because I would argue that even the animated Batman movie Mask of the Phantasm stomps all over Tim Burton's Batman movies.

Glad to see some love for Mask of the Phantasm.

Slightly off topic but whatever happened to the Superman Returns teaser and the SE DVD re-releases of Batman ('89), Batman Returns and Batman Forever that were to coincide with the theatrcal release of Batman Begins?

That's not even an argument. It easily stomps all over Burton's efforts. The animated Batman is still the best representation of Batman IMHO.

Still the best!

Not sure about the Superman Returns trailer (though I am hoping that somebody at WB is making damn sure this new Superman movie is as good as this new Batman movie!) but I read on the main DVDtalk forum that the SEs would likely coincide with the DVD release of Batman Begins.

I always wondered why people clapped at the end of movies like Star Wars? Now I know. Thankfully i had enought sense to realize I was in a movie theater as at least 3 times I wanted to stand up and cheer and I really wanted to applaud the end of this movie. FINALLY a Batman movie a Batman fan can appreciate! I cant wait to see this again and cant wait for the sequels!!!

How much did it cost to make this movie?

After marketing I think it actually cost around $125 million which is pretty insane IMO.

125 including marketing? Seems like a bargain compared to some of the competition.

No, I made a typo. Marketing alone was $100 & that was the most marketing ever spent on a film. The budget w/ marketing was over $225 million & also makes it one of the most expensive films ever produced. Which goes back to my post ealier, that he opening #s were unfortunately a huge let down, this movie was not made to make such moderate #s, this movie was made to be a mega blockbuster.

Where'd you get marketting at $100m? I didn't see THAT much stuff for it, at least, no more than any other $40m marketted film. And far less than previous "big blockbusters" such as Spider-man 1 and 2 and Star Wars Episode 3.

Oh, and yeah, Batman Begins is still the best Batman flick, followed in a distant second by Mask of the Phantasm and then the first Burton flick.

I know I saw IMDB list the marketing budget as $100 million. I don't really believe that figure either, as i agree, i didn't see any more out there then other films.

It's listed in the imdb.com trivia section - At $100 million, the film's marketing costs were the most ever for a single film in history. - and 60% of the time, I'd believe it everytime, but this time, it isn't flying.

Also, from Boxofficeprophets:

Of course, BoxOfficeProphets always came off as incredibly whiney. So even if it made $60m it still would have been "Disappointing".

While I don't think it's 100 million, I do think a lot was spent, from deals with Verizon to MLB baseball ads and placements on the field's backdrop. It was a pretty heavy campaign.

$225 million? Wow!

Never heard of BoxOfficeProphets before, and won't ever visit their site because the movie viewing process should NOT be about box office numbers (unless you're worried about whether or not sequels will be made), but given their name it's pretty safe to say they're all about high box office = high quality.

Ok I might be in the minority, but I thought this movie was terrible. I've never been so bored in a movie before. It was more boring than the hulk, and I didn't think that was possible. I just kept looking at my watch. The first hour of this movie was terrible. I couldn't believe how stupid some of the dialog was. I wanted to cut my own throat listening to it. Maybe I'm not a big enough nerd. I thought all the sword stuff at the begining was retarded. I liked the second half of the movie, but the first half was so slow I already hated it. The first half was taken to seriously. I actually liked batman 3 better than this, and it was terrible.

Also the fight scenes bothered me. WTF? I didn't even see batman. It was all a blur and incredibly boring to watch.

Christian Bale failed at batman. His batman voice was hilarious. I kept laughing at it.
Horrible movie! 5.0/10. If you're just a casual batman fan I wouldn't recommend seeing it. I loved the first 2 because they had a charm about them. This one was just cold and boring as a rock.

I see your point but I think heroes Like Batman, Spider-Man, Superman, The Hulk, Wonder Woman, and others have transended their comic beginnings and have earned their places in American Pop culture. I'm 35 and I've been a huge Batman fan since I was a kid but I didn't buy Batcomics until the 90's when Burton's franchise started.