Re: Was Batman(89) the start of the modern day blockbuster?
 

They're quite nice. You can still find them at Flea Markets. The SW ones will cost ya, but you can find other ones on the cheap like Peanuts, Smurfs, ET, Care Bears, etc. I still have at least one of each of those.

1. As pointed out, Batman did not kick off big opening weekends. However it may have been a turning point where the general public starting caring about revenue. It coincides with the rise of Entertainment Tonight and the birth of Entertainment Weekly.

2. Seriously, the OT did 10x the merchandising Batman did and years before it. The only edge Batman has is a cheesy soundtrack by a pop artist.

3. Again, the OT set the standard for Memorial Day kicking off the summer movie season. What did Batman coming out in June do for summer movies?

4. Is the argument that there was a bigger demand for Batman than SW on VHS?

5. This might be the only thing on the list that makes sense that Batman brought to the table. Presell. Plenty of people camped out for SW tickets though.

6. There no film(s) merchandised more than SW. I think the only thing that rivals it is KISS merchandising in terms of breadth of items available. SW, ESB and RotJ set the standard. Batman merely followed what had been laid out before them.

Re: Was Batman(89) the start of the modern day blockbuster?
 

As a similar aside, remember in the 90's when every movie had a freaking sweepstakes associated with it? Pull off one of those tear-away cards, submit your information and enter for a trip for 4 to whatever location the movie was shot in, or to the studio's theme park. No purchase necessary, of course.

Re: Was Batman(89) the start of the modern day blockbuster?
 

My poor parents. Must have been a solid 4 years of nothing but those Star Wars glasses in our cupboards!:lol:

Re: Was Batman(89) the start of the modern day blockbuster?
 

There's a big difference between 25 years and 40 years, especially with the topic at hand, blockbuster (Jaws) vs modern blockbuster (Batman, Jurassic Park, etc.). The multiplex was the gold standard by 1989, and still is today, 25 years be damned.

Jaws opened "wide" at 675 theaters; Star Wars at 757 theaters. Their opening weekends weren't impressive. So no, they're not a similar comparison to Batman due to the limited number of theaters during their opening weekends.

Re: Was Batman(89) the start of the modern day blockbuster?
 

Jaws. It started the habit of getting the film onto as many screens as possible to start, when previously it was a gradual thing. The television advertising campaign was also unprecedented. Yes it's been 40 years , but it's still the correct answer. Star Wars built upon that and so did Batman and everything since.

Re: Was Batman(89) the start of the modern day blockbuster?
 

Were these multiplexes built in anticipation of Batman?

Re: Was Batman(89) the start of the modern day blockbuster?
 

The earliest fast food tie-in that I can recall was Star Trek: The Motion Picture; McDonald's had Happy Meals promoting the film.

Re: Was Batman(89) the start of the modern day blockbuster?
 

No, you have it backwards. Batman was made with the idea of showing it on a large amount of screens on opening weekend. That didn't happen overnight. It took over a decade to get to that point.

Re: Was Batman(89) the start of the modern day blockbuster?
 

I remember the iron-ons that came in them.

So basically it was made to sell tickets. The multiplex has nothing to do with it. Empire and Jedi outdid it in marketing and tickets sold, by a large percentage. The multiplex came about due to owners wanting to make more $$$.

Batman didn't do anything to change the landscape of film. Nothing. Jaws did. Then you add in the marketing, Empire and Jedi take the cake. I'd make a bigger argument for, T2 and Jurassic Park than Batman.

Re: Was Batman(89) the start of the modern day blockbuster?
 

Whoever said Batman changed anything? It was never about how innovative the movie was.The argument was whether it was the first "modern blockbuster". It was based on the criteria discussed ad nauseam. Of course the theaters wanted to make more money, and so did the studios. It's a business first and foremost. The opportunity was there for releasing a movie to a huge opening weekend, and Batman happened to be first. That's what the OP was stressing. Tickets sold is a meaningless number. Empire and Jedi ran in theaters for months because it was a different time, before home video was prevalent. It's not a fair comparison for what the OP is talking about. And you can't tell me that studios didn't see how well Batman opened, and have tried for bigger and bigger opening weekends ever since. The mega opening started there, and it hasn't stopped. It's in the studios' best interest to open big and fast, because they will get a bigger piece of the pie. The amount of tickets sold from 30 years ago or more to today is a meaningless statistic. You can't go back in time and adjust those dollars to be worth today's dollars.

Re: Was Batman(89) the start of the modern day blockbuster?
 

Batman was so much more modern than Jedi, a whole 6 years. Batman didn't change shit. It was all done prior. Hell Batman had 50 years more marketing than any of the others listed and still couldn't hold a candle. Ghostbusters 2 flopped because it was a shitty sequel.

Back to the future, Top Gun, Rambo, Gremlins, Beverly Hills Cop, Ghostbusters, E.T., could go on and on. Batman made it's money due to it's 50 year marketing history. Jedi only had 6 years of marketing built into it.

So movies are modern if they were released to multiplexes? OK. I'll go the inflation doesn't matter rout too. 89 Batman opened on 1200 more screens ($40,489,746 total, $18,454 average) than Jedi ($23,019,618 total, $22,973 average) Jedi would have been over $50 mil opening weekend without inflation if it was on the same # of screens.

Boxoffice mojo shows Batman gross at $411 mil worldwide
Last Crusade at $474.2 mil worldwide

Does only US market count, or worldwide? So, world wide % grows each year, when do you take worldwide into account, that is the true modern standard, right?

Re: Was Batman(89) the start of the modern day blockbuster?
 

I guess you could say that Batman 89 was the first movie to get hyped months before it came out. Most blockbusters like Star Wars, Jaws, Raiders, even ET built their audience and stayed in the theaters for the whole summer.

I remember the spring of 89 being constantly bombarded with Batman tie-ins (commercials), along with the Prince song 'Batdance' played on MTV every hour. So Star Wars, Jaws, Raiders, and ET were a must see because the word of mouth, whereas Batman was a must see because of the hype.

Just for the record, even when I saw it in 1989 I thought it was overrated.

Re: Was Batman(89) the start of the modern day blockbuster?
 

Empire and Jedi had that hype too. Did E.T. have a bunch of marketing hype? Can't remember.

Re: Was Batman(89) the start of the modern day blockbuster?
 

E.T. had a some toys and stuff, and there was the big tie-in with Reese's Pieces. And that notorious Atari game.

Universal tried to merchandize Dune like Star Wars; including stuff like coloring books, stuff for kids' parties, and bed sheets. What child wouldn't want to share his or her bed with Baron Harkonnen? http://www.mindspring.com/~dunestuff/merch.html

Re: Was Batman(89) the start of the modern day blockbuster?
 

You're arguing per screen averages now? There's no way you could prove that would have led to a $50m opening weekend. Otherwise all those indie films that get released on 5 screens with much bigger per screen averages should've opened bigger than either Batman or Jedi. It's fuzzy math, just like adjusted for inflation is (taking a movie out of the past and applying it to today's standard/money, just silly).

No, modern movies aren't only released in multiplexes, but BLOCKBUSTERS are, are they not?

Jedi was the final Star Wars as far as most were concerned. It was still on the heels of the first two movies. And yeah, 6 years can make a difference with the growth of multiplexes. None of those 80s movies had that huge of openings either that you listed.

Worldwide is harder to pinpoint because the numbers are a lot of times guesses except within the last 10 or 15 years. Looking at Boxofficemojo as the Bible for true box office numbers is a fools errand.

Ghostbusters II didn't really flop, just underperformed based on expectations. Big difference.

Batman also was hyped for a year, it was the first movie to be promoted at Comic Con way back when, another modern trend. And there was midnight screenings too.

Re: Was Batman(89) the start of the modern day blockbuster?
 

I forgot about that game! :lol:

It pretty much killed Atari 2600!

Re: Was Batman(89) the start of the modern day blockbuster?
 

Why not? Shouldn't the actual NUMBER of theaters in North America and the actual cost of a ticket at the time of release play a factor in this? You don't think that if there were 4,000 movie theaters available in 1975 and ticket prices were $10 a seat that Jaws wouldn't have had a $100 + opening?

Both Jaws and Star Wars opened to a comparable percentage of available theaters as Batman did.

Re: Was Batman(89) the start of the modern day blockbuster?
 

If we want to change the topic to "first over-hyped blockbuster", I'm totally cool with giving THAT status to Batman. ;)

Re: Was Batman(89) the start of the modern day blockbuster?
 

Their per screen average wasn't that good either for opening weekend. They had longevity, which is what movies could do back then. Not anymore though. That's what this topic is pointing to.

No way would people see Jaws for $10 in 1975. That's my point with the whole idea of adjusted for inflation. Movies like Jaws and Star Wars did so well partly because that was all there was, the movies or TV to watch them. It's comparing apples to oranges. Movies weren't released in a vacuum, but in their time. You can't take them out and plant them into 2014 and think these movies would be hits, since this is a different world now.

Re: Was Batman(89) the start of the modern day blockbuster?
 

And let me just add that the whole Adjusted For Inflation formula is a joke on Boxofficemojo. It already has Avatar grossing something like $70m more if it was released today. Come on, ticket prices haven't increased much as all since the end of 2009.

Re: Was Batman(89) the start of the modern day blockbuster?
 

That's on $2.7b which is probable. It's only adjusted $11m in the US, which on something like 80m tickets sold is pretty believable.

But that doesn't consider that $749m in 2009 is equal to $817.5m today.

Re: Was Batman(89) the start of the modern day blockbuster?
 

No, it's $52m difference domestic for Avatar. I don't believe that for a second.

Re: Was Batman(89) the start of the modern day blockbuster?
 

Whoops misread that. That says Domestic Lifetime Gross, forgot about the re-release.

So it sold an estimated 97m tickets. Their difference is it says $7.50 was the average in 2009, and $8.35 is the average in 2014.

This is true, but it ignores the fact that these tickets were predominantly 3D. Ticket prices have increased by at least $0.85 in the last 5 years, but ignoring 3D mark up is a pretty big deal on something like Avatar.

But at least ticket inflation is less than dollar inflation. $760,507,625 in 2009 is apparently equivalent to $829m today.

Re: Was Batman(89) the start of the modern day blockbuster?
 

Really? I guess I live in a cheap market. Tickets may have increased by 50 cents in the last 4 years where I live. Regardless, it's a miracle any movie does that well. I usually go see a cheap showing before noon nowadays, just not worth the extra cost.

Re: Was Batman(89) the start of the modern day blockbuster?
 

They've gone up $3 here :(