11 Incredibly Successful Movies (That Shockingly Made No Profit)
4. Batman
Tim Burton's Batman was a smash hit at the box office, grossing over $400 million on a $35 million dollar budget, and yet somehow lost $35.8 million.
According to the Los Angeles Times, prices for advertising, publicity, Jack Nicholson's high salary and the studio's cut are among the factors that left the film in the red.
Based on Warner Bros.'s net-profit formula, the movie would have had to earn an additional $150 million in gross before a net profit could be turned, but that never happened.
In addition, merchandise sales were rather low, only making about $2.9 million, while the Prince single, Batdance, made less than $400,000 for Warner.
Once all the expenses from production, marketing, distribution, taxes, and more added up, there was just no way for the film to break even. But that didn't stop the franchise from going on (for a while, anyway).