20 Most Important Blockbusters That Changed Cinema Forever

13. Batman

Turn a character that had previously fallen into camp into a new, shiny blockbuster made by an up-and-coming director with an recognisable style; Tim Burton's Batman did for the Dark Knight what Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins did for, well, the Dark Knight.

Batman proved a groundbreaking step in the development of the character; although Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns had shown comic fans how dark things could go, it was this film that started showing that to audiences. But it isn't simply within the franchise that Batman shook things up. Signalling another step towards the superhero genre (now we had a whopping two successfully translated to the big screen), it was a great example of director well-matched to the material, with a studio making sure Burton didn't go too far into his trademark weirdness.

The major shift Batman brought to the table that has since been ignored, however, is in reference to merchandise. It was truly blanket - toys, product tie-ins, you name it - and although merchandising had been proven a big cash draw before (Planet Of The Apes had obnoxious amounts of lunchboxes twenty years earlier), Batman set the industry-standard approach.