WI: Batman 1989 and Batman Returns with a tone similar to later films

Say Warner Bros. decides to make Batman 1989 and Batman returns with a tone and style similar to Batman Forever and Batman and Robin.

How commercially successfully would they be

How would this effect how batman is viewed and later batman films

How would this impact Superhero movies as a whole
 
Last edited:
If you mean Batman Forever and Batman and Robin, it flops hard, vindicates Adam West and Burt Ward, and widens the divide between the fans of the Silver Age/T.V. Show/Superfriends version and the fans of the Golden Age and Denny O'Neill and after comic version.

If you mean the Dark Knight Trilogy and the DCEU version, nothing changes except more location shooting and less time in studio backlots, and possibly a less wacky score and soundtrack.
 
But Batman Forever had Batman and Batman Returns preceding it.

The question for me is if they go immediately with the tone and style of Batman Forever and Batman & Robin in 1989 and it flops, how long would it take before they touch the property again? How long before ITTL’s version of Batman Begins?
 
Thing is that prior to the Tim Burton films most of the potential audiences exposure to superheroes on screen was the Superman movies and the Wonder Woman and Incredible Hulk TV shows, or of course the 60's Batman series. Something closer in style to BF or B&R wouldn't seem that outlandish and might do better without Burton raising the bar.
 
You mean Burton's OTL Batman style being usurped by OTL's Schumacher Batman style?

Very bad things critically, to be sure.

But there is the VHS market. What was the biggest budget movie of that era that was saved, commercially speaking, by home viewing?

If you mean the Dark Knight Trilogy and the DCEU version, nothing changes except more location shooting and less time in studio backlots, and possibly a less wacky score and soundtrack.
IMO you may then effectively get Batman '89 and whatever possible followup being in the style of--to cite arguably the two most Nolanesque directors from that time--Kathryn Bigelow's or Ridley Scott's 'NY/LA/Tokyo are Lawless Metropolises [Wot Need A New Kind of Sheriff Who Breaks All The Rules]' thrillers of the era (Cold Steel, Point Break, Black Rain and Someone To Watch Over Me?, respectively).

Everything changes.

Also, tangentially, here's some food for thought. Joel Schumacher's filmography, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Schumacher#Filmography

St Elmo's Fire is a damn good comedy/melodrama, it's close to the lowkey dramas that Scorcese and Coppola were doing in the eighties. I've heard good things about Lost Boys and Tigerland. Heh, Falling Down is a minor LA sunlit noir psychodrama classic, and dare I say... an antecedent to the new Joker?

What if his post-Burton Batmans were radically different?
 
Last edited:
Top