10 Things You Didn’t Know About Tim Burton’s Batman
7. It Was A Huge Payday For Jack Nicholson
In the contract that Jack Nicholson eventually signed after Robin Williams had been and gone Warner Bros agreed to give Nicholson a cut of the films profits, on top of his baseline $6 million fee. Due to the huge success of the movie (it was the biggest film of the year, financially), Nicholson ended up taking home a whopping $60 million. At the time, this was the most money an actor had ever been paid from a single performance. Even though there was a huge amount of money at stake, Nicholson wasnt particularly well behaved on set. Prior to accepting the part, he had stipulated that he wouldnt have to do any early starts. This allowed him to party until 3am, get a few hours sleep, rock up on set at 10am and fall asleep in his makeup chair for two hours (which apparently became a daily occurrence). Michael Keaton, on the other hand, would get all the early shoots and wasnt paid as much as Nicholson (his exact fee is unknown). Warner Bros obviously saw his worth, though, and offered Keaton an extra $10 million to come back for Batman Returns. Later, they even offered him $14 million to do Batman Forever, which Keaton turned down because he didnt agree with the lighter direction the franchise was moving towards at that stage.
