Batman Box Office: Worldwide Grosses and Budgets for Every Film

The eight main Batman films have earned about $4.5 billion worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo figures, and the two animated spinoffs add a little over $300 million more. Budgets, domestic grosses and international grosses for every film follow, era by era.

The Dark Knight Rises (2012), directed by Christopher Nolan, is the highest grossing Batman movie. It took $1.085 billion worldwide on a $250 million budget, split between $448 million domestic and $637 million international. The Dark Knight (2008), also directed by Nolan, grossed more than $1 billion on a $185 million budget, with $535 million of that coming from the domestic box office. Batman Begins (2005) started the trilogy with $376 million worldwide on a $150 million budget.

The earlier run began with Batman (1989), directed by Tim Burton, which earned $412 million worldwide on a $35 million budget ($251 million domestic and $160 million international). Batman Returns (1992), also directed by Burton, took $267 million on an $80 million budget. Joel Schumacher then directed Batman Forever (1995), which made $337 million on a $100 million budget, and Batman & Robin (1997), which made $238 million on a $125 million budget. That last figure is the lowest worldwide total of the eight main films, and its $107 million domestic gross is the lowest as well.

The Batman 2022, directed by Matt Reeves and starring Robert Pattinson, grossed $773 million worldwide on a $200 million budget. It earned $370 million domestic and $403 million international, which puts it third on the list of highest grossing Batman movies, behind both Nolan sequels.

The spinoffs sit apart from the main run. Batman (1966), directed by Leslie H. Martinson, cost about $1.4 million to make, and The Numbers shows no meaningful grosses from its original release. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993), directed by Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski, earned $5.9 million worldwide, including $5.6 million domestic, and neither Box Office Mojo nor The Numbers lists a budget for it. The Lego Batman Movie (2017), directed by Chris McKay, took $312 million on an $80 million budget.

Four more films carry Batman on the poster but are listed in the Batman movies in order guide as appearances, so their grosses are kept out of the totals above. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), directed by Zack Snyder, earned $874 million worldwide on a $250 million budget. Justice League (2017), also directed by Snyder, earned $661 million on a $300 million budget. The Flash (2023), directed by Andy Muschietti with Michael Keaton returning as Batman, earned $271 million on a $200 million budget. Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021) went straight to streaming, so it has no theatrical gross, and TheWrap reported its budget at about $70 million.

For the wider picture of the series, start at the Batman movies hub.

Batman has been a box office success in almost every era, and the clearest way to see it is to compare each film's worldwide gross with its budget. A gross is not profit, because theaters keep a share of ticket sales and marketing costs sit outside the budget, so treat the multiples as a rough guide and not as accounting.

On that measure, Batman (1989) is the series' most efficient film, with $412 million worldwide on a $35 million budget, nearly twelve times what it cost. The Dark Knight comes next at about 5.5 times its budget, then The Dark Knight Rises at about 4.3 times. The Batman (2022) and The Lego Batman Movie both land near 3.9 times. Batman Returns and Batman Forever sit close together, at roughly 3.3 and 3.4 times. Batman Begins returned about 2.5 times its budget, and Batman & Robin about 1.9 times, the weakest return in the series.

Was Dark Knight a hit or flop? In my opinion, it is the clearest hit in the series. It cleared $1 billion on a $185 million budget. Paradoxically, The Dark Knight Rises earned more in total but cost $250 million to make, against $185 million for its predecessor, so its return on budget is lower. Both are enormous results, and I would not argue about which one counts as the bigger hit.

Was Batman Forever a hit or a flop? It could be argued that it was a solid hit that looked small next to its predecessor's reputation. Its $337 million worldwide gross on a $100 million budget beat the $267 million of Batman Returns, even though it fell short of the $412 million that Burton's first film took. The slide came afterward. Batman & Robin cost $125 million, against $100 million for Forever, and earned $238 million, which in my opinion is what ended that version of the saga, more than any single review.

The Batman (2022) deserves its own note, because it is the most recent main Batman film. Reeves and Pattinson earned $773 million worldwide on a $200 million budget, and about 52 percent of that came from outside the domestic market. It trails the Nolan sequels but sits well above everything from the Burton and Schumacher years. The status of the batman part 2 is now the main open question in the box office story. TheWrap reported on October 5, 2026 that production paused for a family matter involving Reeves, and it gave a US release date of February 18, 2028 that could shift depending on how long the pause lasts.

What about Batman box office adjusted for inflation? Every gross quoted here is the figure as reported, and ticket prices have risen a great deal since 1989. It could be argued that the raw ranking flatters recent films, so the distance between the Burton era and the Nolan era is probably narrower in audience terms than the dollars suggest. Perhaps the fairest reading is to rank each film against its own budget, and not against the other decades.

If you want these numbers set against my verdicts on the films themselves, see Batman movies ranked, and for the people behind the biggest earners, see the Batman cast page.