Batman: who is the most successful Batman of all time and their box office totals

Batman is one of the most successful comic book heroes when it comes to the cinematic box office - the Caped Crusader has featured in a starring or ensemble role in more than a dozen major movies, and has been a supporting role in many more.

Since Adam West first donned the grey spandex suit for the 1966 movie, eight other actors have played different incarnations of the character in Batman and Justice League films.

Just like everyone has their favourite Doctor Who or James Bond, movie buffs also argue over the best Bruce Wayne - but the numbers don't lie. This is how everything Batman actor has performed at the box office, adjuster for inflation.

Adam West – ($2.8 million) Batman (1966)

West was the first star to take Batman to the silver screen, and whilst his historic outing in the 1966 campy action comedy has become a classic, it didn’t exactly blow the socks of audiences at the time.

This was decades before Tim Burton made movie Batman a much darker character, and 40 years before superhero movies really hit their stride, so we can’t be too hard on West. However, he does claim the title of the least successful movie Batman to date, and it’s unlikely that any future star will undercut him.

Kevin Conroy – ($11.8 million) Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993)

Like Adam West’s film, Mask of the Phantasm has aged well and developed a strong cult fanbase, but once again it failed to perform at the box office. Animated superhero movies rarely do as well as like action, the Spider-Verse films being a rare exception.

This film also features a stand-out voice role from Star Wars actor Mark Hamill as The Joker, but due to a last minute rush to get the film into cinemas it failed to make back its budget.

Will Arnett ($377 million – The Lego Batman Movie (2017)

Arnett is better known for voicing BoJack Horseman in the adult animated series of the same name, but the comic actor also turned out a strong performance in The Lego Batman Movie.

Whilst the film’s box office pales in comparison to most Batman movies, for a family animation based on a toy, it did surprisingly well, out-performing more mainstream DC superhero films.

George Clooney ($439 million) – Batman & Robin (1997)

Often considered one of the worst films of all time, George Clooney, one of the most revered actors of all time, failed to save this box office disappointment from a lifetime of ridicule.

Clooney could only do so much with a ridiculous script, cheap looking costumes and set design, and a painful performance from Arnold Schwarzenegger. Batman & Robin is the lowest grossing of the ‘big budget’ Batman projects.

Val Kilmer – ($654 million) Batman Forever (1995)

Batman Forever, a fairly terrible film in its own right, had the saving grace of being followed two years later by Batman & Robin, which made it look like a veritable Citizen Kane in comparison.

Val Kilmer was no Michael Keaton though, and the drop in quality between their films was obvious. And of course, Batman Forever will always be the film that introduced us to Bat Nipples.

Robert Pattinson  ($801 million) - The Batman (2022)

The Batman had a good outing at the box office but this was overshadowed by early reports that the film would need to top $1 billion to make a profit. This wasn’t the case as the movie’s estimated budget was $200 million, so $500 million should have seen it into the black.

Whilst most fans of the character would agree that Pattinson’s outing didn’t match up to Christian Bale’s definitive performance, the movie became the seventh highest grossing film of the year and helped to wipe the slate clean after Ben Afflek’s unpopular turn as the hero.

Michael Keaton ($1.54 billion) – Batman (1989), Batman Returns (1992)

Tim Burton reinvented Batman more than three decades after the character’s first and at that point only film outing. This was the era of the gritty, broody, growling Batman that was perfected by Christian Bale and overdone by Afflek and Pattinson.

Over his two appearances in 1989 and 1992, and not counting his supporting role in The Flash, Keaton’s take on the character, with help from Jack Nicholson as The Joker, made more than $1.5 billion when adjusted for inflation, a testament to the growing popularity of the genre and the character.

Ben Affleck – ($1.8 billion) Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Justice League (2017)

Ben Afflek saw an unreasonable level of success from such unpopular movies (although, despite the high returns Justice League is estimated to have lost Warner Bros. $60 million whilst Dawn of Justice saw a modest profit) with box office receipts higher than all but one Batman star.

Dawn of Justice saw Afflek’s Batman take on Henry Cavill’s Man of Steel, whilst Justice League was a messy ensemble piece that couldn’t even approach the success of Marvel’s Avengers films.

Christian Bale  ($3.3 billion) – Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

It will hardly be surprising to Batman fans to learn that Christian Bale’s outing in the Dark Knight trilogy, directed by Christopher Nolan and co-starring legendary actors like Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy, Liam Neeson, and Heath Ledger, is far and away the most successful of all Batman actors.

The movies came as the superhero genre was reaching its peak, they had great storylines, brutal action sequences, and strong characters. Adjusted for inflation, Bale’s Batman managed more than $1 billion per film, something no other actor has managed with the same role.