A Source from TheNumbers.com revealed the budget of The Batman, and it is not a number that we were expecting. Considering the fact that The Batman is supposed to be the first Batman solo movie in the DCEU, the budget of The Batman is extremely low. Matt Reeves commented in a featurette released during the DC FanDome 2021 that The Batman was going back to the caped crusader’s roots. The Batman was always going to be a different kind of movie according to the director.
The Batman was always the world’s greatest detective and Reeves wants to showcase that rather than the over-the-top action we have seen from previous Bat movies. The only reason why Batman is so popular is that he is a human who battles Gods with his wits and beats them into the ground with his fists. He is like a mythical hero who defies the divine beings of providence by his sheer will. This is what makes him so compelling. However, the reason we watch a movie and the reason we love a character can be wildly different.
There has not been a compelling Batman movie since The Dark Knight. Even The Dark Knight Rises took the action route rather than the story route. So we are very happy about the focus on the story in Matt Reeves’s The Batman. A noir look into Gotham is exactly the kind of creative spin we wish we can see because of the development of the Superhero genre. For this purpose, the $100 million budget of The Batman is enough. The only problem is that it does not stack against DCEU’s previous releases.
The Batman vs. DCEU
Let’s compare The Budget of The Batman with other DCEU movies. Justice League had a budget of $300 million which is fair for a movie of its scale and structure. It was raised to this amount by the extensive reshoots that were conducted under Whedon. It also had a lot of CGI involved in it and there were a lot of stars to pay. Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice was the most ambitious project of DCEU and had a budget of $263 million. Even Man Of Steel, the first DCEU movie had a budget of $225 million. Both versions of Suicide Squad were in the $170-180 million range.
Aquaman was given a budget of $160 million while Wonder Woman was allocated $150 million. All of these films including standalone origin movies had more budget than The Batman. One of the main reasons for this is that all of the above movies required a great deal of CGI while The Batman seems to be based in reality. The Stunts, the camera shots, all the characters in this movie are supposed to be real and this saves a lot of money on special effects. Moreover, Joker and Logan also did something similar.
They took a larger-than-life character because of over-the-top portrayals in the past and brought them down to the ground level in their movies. Giving these characters a vulnerable look and bringing a much-needed rawness into the movie. This allows the audience to connect with the protagonist better and makes the comic hero more relatable. No wonder a geek like me could identify with a jacked Hugh Jackman. But I digress, inspite of the fact that The Budget of The Batman is extremely low it seems that the tone of the movie is just right.
Budget of The Batman Vs Other Batman Movies
If we list all the Batman movies in the order of budget highest to lowest then the list will look something like this:-
- The Dark Knight Rises: $250 million
- The Dark Knight – $185 million
- Batman & Robin – $160 million
- Batman Begins – $150 million
- The Batman – $100 million
- Batman Forever – $100 million
- Batman Returns – $80 million
- Batman – $35 million
Bear in mind that this list has not been adjusted for inflation but still tells us that even here The Batman is pretty low on the ladder. Part of the reason may be that Robert Pattinson’s salary was relatively low. The actor was paid $3 million for appearing in The Batman. But looking at the footage we have received we think that he definitely deserved more. Even Bale was paid $9 million for Batman Begins back in 2005. If The Batman turns out to be a success, then we can be certain that Robert Pattinson is going to get a much bigger payday for the sequel.
It seems that WB is green lighting a lot of these low-mid-budget DC movies. Shazam! got a $100 million budget, Birds of Prey was around $84 million, and Joker was somewhere between 55-$57 million. And now, the likes of Batgirl, Blue Beetle and Black Canary, which are supposed to arrive on HBO Max will also have budgets around these numbers as well. So, WB is certainly trying to get a whole lot of purchase by paying less for their films. So far, this formula has worked well once (with Joker), but it hasn’t given a lot of returns twice (BoP & Shazam!). Hopefully, The Batman will give them 2 for 2!
What do you think of our analysis? Do you think the budget of The Batman will affect its quality? Maybe it will be better for the movie to have such a low budget? What do you think about this? Let us know in the comments below and keep watching this space for everything Marvel, DC, and Hollywood. Excelsior!!!
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