What Went Wrong: 13 Disastrous Comic Book Movies (And Why They Sucked)

5. Toy Sales Ruled - Batman & Robin

Before Christopher Nolan arrived as Gotham's saviour, it looked like Batman & Robin might well have killed the franchise entirely. It was dumb, cartoonish and the natural extrapolation of a creative approach that favoured gags and nipples over darkness.

The Cause

It all came down to Warner Bros' desire to sell more toys. When Batman and Batman Returns came out, they were critically adored but allowing Tum Burton to deliver his dark vision (particularly in the sequel) proved not to be as commercially rewarding as the studio wanted.

They found that they couldn't sell as many toys when the film was ostensibly for adults, so they decided to make Forever "more mainstream." Sadly, they pressured Joel Schumacher into following that mantra without giving him the necessary guidance that "more mainstream" doesn't mean juvenile and silly, which his movies increasingly became. In the end, Batman And Robin became a joke, full of gags, goofball antics and marketable stars, but with no substance and no sense of what Batman actually was.

As an indication of how bad the studio's judgement was, they actually green-lit its follow-up on the back of the dailies. So at some point, they were actually IMPRESSED with this garbage.

How Disastrous Was It?

It killed Batman Unchained's chances of existing and the Nightwing spin-off that was supposed to happen, but more importantly it made it necessary to completely reboot the franchise. Sure, it made SOME money, but it was a critical laughing stock and it made $100m less than Batman Forever.

Considering the increased cost, that was fatal.