10 Films You Didn't Realise Secretly Bombed
3. Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm
We know it sounds crazy: a Batman movie that bombed? Especially in this day and age, when a film as dire as Justice League can make almost $660 million, it seems insane that anything featuring the Dark Knight could fail to draw crowds. Unfortunately, for this theatrical spin-off of Batman: The Animated Series, the box office returns were just that insane.
Mask of the Phantasm is probably the least well-known of the silver screen Batman films. Aside from The Lego Batman Movie, it is the only animated Batman film to receive a cinematic release. Unlike its Lego counterpart, which earned quadruple the amount of money it cost to make, Mask of the Phantasm couldn't even turn a profit. It made $5.8 million on a budget of $6 million, costing the studio money and costing BTAS fans the chance to ever see their hero on the big screen again.
Phantasm came out in 1993, right in between Batman Returns and Batman Forever. Maybe if fans knew this would be their last chance to see a top-quality Bat-flick before the Joel Schumacher era began, they would have actually shown up to the cinema.