robin2099

Yes I know there were other big movies before Batman came out, Star Wars, Superman, and Jaws among them. But it seems like Burton's Batman was the start of the modern day blockbuster.

For awhile it was the standard that all studios were judging their movies successes against. Columbia classified Ghostbusters 2 as a flop because it didn't make as much as Batman even though it was one of the most profitable movies of that year. Disney counted Dick Tracy as a flop(and cancelled an amazing sounding Disney World attraction. I'm still pissed over that) because they considered Dick Tracy to be a flop since it didn't gross as much as Batman. Despite good reviews, a couple Oscar Wins and nom's and the movie clearing over $100 million.

Then you had the merchandising. Batman was everywhere in 89-90. There were toys, games, shirts, sheets, tortilla chips, cereal. Warner probably made more money licensing Batman than they made on the actual movie.It got to the point that when Warner was developing the Superman reboot in the 90's they were trying to get writers to put in different costumes, vehicles, villains etc for the sole reason of merchandising and selling toys. Heck Jack Nicholson was rumored to make over $50 million because he got a percentage of merchandise sales.

Batman also started what seemed like the big movie of the summer being licensed to build up hype for it. Dick Tracy was first out of the gate in 1990. Like Jame's Rolfe said people went from going 'Who's Dick Tracy? To "Holy Shit! Dick Tracy's coming out!"Then it continued with Terminator 2 in 91 and it has been that way ever since.

So was Batman the birth of the modern day blockbuster?

Brack

I would say it was, in terms of the big opening weekend-type blockbusters. But more importantly, it was the movie that really started the home video sell-through. Before that movie, you pretty much just saw the movie in theaters or later rented the movie on video/watched it on cable.

duff beer

Yeah idk man i just voted whatever. Yea sure.

Crocker Jarmen

The '89 Batman movie was advertised to a degree I remember no other film being before. Well before its release, every TV show, every magazine and newspaper had detailed features on this new Batman movie that would be coming out.

The saturation of the TV commercials was such, that I remember going the opening weekend, and the audience was like the audience at The Rocky Horror Picture Show. They had heard the lines in the commercials so often, they were able to speak them aloud with the film. And it wasn't just one of two people, it was a huge portion of the audience able to say in perfect sync with the film "I'M BATMAN!" and "I DIDN'T ASK" and "WAIT TIL THEY GET A LOAD OF ME!"

Michael Corvin

No. Batman simply managed to replicate everything George Lucas had already done.

PenguinJoe

I took a film class the very first blockbuster was Jaws apparently it ran for like five months in the first run theaters in the 70s which is unheard of now.

Josh-da-man

Yes, but film releasing was a lot different in 1975. You didn't really have the big opening weekend back then. Most theaters were single screens which meant releases were staggered and it might be a month or two before a big movie made it to your town, and the only way to see a movie was to watch in a theater since there wasn't any home video back then (most people didn't get VCRs until about 1985 or so), and the only way to see a movie at home was either on HBO, which, at the time, most people didn't have, or wait five years until it was an ABC Sunday Night movie.

Michael Corvin

Jaws is considered the first summer blockbuster but Star Wars blew the doors off the hinges a couple short years later with the marketing, lines around buildings, merchandising, media coverage, etc. Jaws brought out the bar, but SW set it so high that everyone has been trying to reach it ever since.

Here's a thread from last year that is pretty similar.

Dr. DVD

I voted yes, but I think it's more of what started the "must open huge" summer blockbuster mentality. It came about at the dawn of the multiplex.

whotony

Jaws had long long lines around buildings all summer.

The answer is Jaws but SW continued it after Jaws.

Bill Needle

It (Batman '89) was the first film I remember that advertised in what could be considered a more "modern" style. For instance, giant billboards along the freeway would have only the Bat-logo image on it...no words, no premier date, just the giant black on yellow logo.

Ten years earlier was Alien, which ran trailers that scared people more than most any film ever had without a single word of dialog from the film or voiceover. But the Batman campaign was different, almost like it used social media before there was social media.

bluetoast

Even as a three/four year old I distinctly remember the Bat Logo billboard, I ate the cereal (sent away for a frisbee), got the 200 Balloons CD single. Didn't see the movie in theaters, but I did get the soundtrack on cassette, which I listened to over and over. If that mania hit me at that age, I can imagine what it would be for the intended demographic.

gmanca

Yup that's right bluetoast, in fact when you were in the theater for Batman, there were merchandise brochures.

killershark

IIRC the reason Jaws was considered the first blockbuster bacause it was the first film to be released nationwide. As opposed to opening in big cities first and then smaller markets after.

Mr. Cinema

If not Batman, then maybe Terminator 2 or Jurassic Park?

Dr. DVD

Batman was far from the first summer blockbuster. However, I do believe it was the first movie to offer the advanced ticket sales option. These were the days before Fandango and such, so the only way to get tickets was to wait in line .

inri222

This

BrewCrew

No, it wasn't the birth of the modern day blockbuster but did add things that were not necessarily seen with previous blockbusters. I would maybe say Batman made the biggest impact after Jaws and the Star Wars trilogy.

Brack

"Modern" was the key term here, not "first." At least that's how I read it.

At the time, its opening weekend was the biggest ever at $43.6m. The biggest before that was Ghostbusters II with $29.4. I think that's what the OP meant by modern. I loved Jaws and Star Wars, but they're not modern blockbusters. That's not a knock on them at all, since their runs were, for me, more impressive than todays so-called blockbusters.

Shannon Nutt

This is the correct answer. Jaws actually opened wide to about 400 theaters, which was a big number in 1975. It didn't follow the then-established method of opening in a few major cities and stretching out across the country. It was at "a theater near you" from week one, although Universal did cut the theater number in half (they had originally planned about twice that many) to still make it an "event" picture (you might have to drive to a theater across town as opposed to the one around the corner) the first few weeks of release - and went wider as the summer progressed.

And to respond to the above poster, I still think Jaws and Star Wars qualify as "modern." I realize some of you weren't born yet, but that doesn't mean it's not "modern" to the rest of us.

mcnabb

Batman '89 was what I call the beginning of the 'dummy' blockbuster movie. It was all flash and no substance, and the reason I rarely goto the movies in the summer anymore. 99% of the summer movies are pure garbage that don't hold up years later, as these movies have no character development or an interesting story and rely on CGI and action to captivate the audience.

RichC2

Batman was a big hit and -to that point- the highest grossing opening ever, but I don't think it was a modern anything standard. Hell, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade opened to $29.5m a few weeks prior and was in a similar number of theaters.

I think the real birth of the mindless big budget blockbuster came with ID4 in 1995. I mean, there have always been stupid movies, but now stupid movies were getting enormous budgets.

Brack

Were Jaws and Star Wars released in the same fashion? No, they stayed in theaters for a long time, especially Star Wars. That NEVER happens today. So by that definition, they are not modern, even if one was alive during that time.

Let's just throw in Thunderball while we're at it, since some people were alive back then.

wishbone

Or Titanic...

jeffkjoe

JAWS and STAR WARS were unexpected blockbusters.

BATMAN was being tracked early on, with the mindset from the beginning, of being a tentpole - a manufactured blockbuster.


But no, BATMAN was not the first modern day blockbuster.

RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK was. People going in were physically shaping a blockbuster, and it was a tentpole for Paramount.