Total Worldwide Box Office Gross: $336.5 Million The first of the Joel Schumacher Batman films, Batman Forever was created on a budget of $100 million, and starred Val Kilmer as the title character, replacing the Tim Burton era's Michael Keaton. The film itself was a flashy mix of camp and color, giving us the introduction of Richard Grayson as Robin (Chris O'Donnell) with Tommy Lee Jones as an over-the-top Harvey Two Face and a larger-than-life Jim Carrey as The Riddler. The film would gross over $330 million dollars at the box office and spawned a sequel in '97. Batman Forever was the non-linear sequel to Tim Burton's 1992 Batman Forever, which was the lowest-performing Batman film to date, though critically it was a hit. While Forever recast Batman with Val Kilmer, it also included some of Hollywood's hottest up-and-comers at the time, like Nicole Kidman and Jim Carrey. The film was a 180 degree departure from the Burton films, trading campiness for Returns' doom and gloom, and thus its success at the cinema was not unexpected, given Batman Returns' under performance. With a $100 million dollar budget, the film was a huge gamble, but Batman Forever recouped its production budget by the end of its second week of release - a week which saw the film jump by over 50% in earnings during its second week of release. Word of mouth of a fun film brought people back out to see The Caped Crusader, and erased from the general viewing public the sour, drab memories of Burton's Batman Returns. Batman Forever ranks #254 on the all-time worldwide box office chart.
