Light the Bat Signal, because The Batman is soon approaching theaters. The upcoming movie will introduce Robert Pattinson’s take on Bruce Wayne and Planet of the Apes director Matt Reeves’ vision of his world in Gotham. It will be the first solo film starring the Caped Crusader since 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises, and anticipation is high. Before the movie hits theaters, we now know what the production budget is.
A movie’s production budget is really important to a film because for one, it gives us an idea of its scope, and two, it provides us with an idea of how much it needs to make in order to be considered a commercial success, and thus spawn more sequels. According to Deadline, The Batman was made for $100 million, which means this is a massive film!
Now $100 million is a lot of money and most definitely makes The Batman a big-budget film, but when compared to other superhero films like it, it’s not on the high end of things. Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins, for example, was made for a reported $150 million, and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice cost Warner Bros $250 million.
The cost of Matt Reeves’ noir take on the Dark Knight is in the neighborhood of 2019’s Shazam!, which also cost a reported $100 million to make. Shazam! made $365 million worldwide and has since filmed a sequel set to come out in summer 2023. Birds of Prey in was also made on a smaller budget of around $85 million, which made up for it being rated R and making less than other DCEU movies.
The Batman’s production budget is honestly great news for the future of the Robert Pattinson Batman era because it means that the movie doesn’t necessarily need to pull in a billion dollars in order to make bank. The movie has a massive cast including Zoë Kravitz, Andy Serkis, Colin Farrell, Paul Dano, Jeffrey Wright and John Turturro, yet via the trailers, it has the feel of a smaller scale film like Se7en amidst some exciting action scenes and a Batmobile.
Robert Pattinson was reportedly paid $3 million to play Bruce Wayne, which is much lower than many other leading men, such as Thor’s Chris Hemsworth, who is reportedly getting $20 million for Thor: Love and Thunder. Money isn’t everything when it comes to making a good movie, and after seeing Christopher Nolan’s massive Dark Knight trilogy and Zack Snyder’s take on Batman with Ben Affleck’s appearances in BvS and Justice League, I know I’m looking forward to a slightly less explosion-stuffed release.
The Batman hits theaters on March 4, 2022. You can check out the full lineup of upcoming DC movies here on CinemaBlend.
