10 Most Important Comic Book Movies Ever Made

4. Batman

Batman 1989
Warner Bros.

In the months leading up to its release in June 1989, Batman was no longer just a heavily-marketed summer blockbuster; it was a worldwide cultural phenomenon. Tim Burton's dark and brooding take on the material wasn't just the best and most lucrative comic book movie since Superman II a decade earlier, it changed the entire paradigm of big-budget filmmaking.

Star Jack Nicholson secured a reported $60m payday thanks to his contract including the now-standard practice of including a percentage of the box office gross on top of his salary, the heavily-played tie-in soundtrack album by global superstar Prince sold over eleven million copies and of course, the pre-release hype would launch what became known as 'Batmania'.

Batman was one of the first tentpole movies to truly harness the power of merchandising tie-ins after generating almost $750m in revenue from licensed products, and still remains one of the most influential summer blockbusters ever made almost 30 years later regardless of genre.

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