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BATMAN’s been around so long we’ve had many different first encounters with the same character.

For some, it was the action comic book’s masked superhero, THE BATMAN, created by artist Bob Kane & writer Bill Finger, that hit newsstands Mar. 30, 1939 in Detective Comics #27, leading to two 1940’s film serials. For others, it was 20th Century Fox’s ABC-TV action comedy series (1966-68) starring Adam West or Fox’s 1966 movie parody with Cesar Romero as The Joker.

It wasn’t until June 23, 1989 that the next BATMAN movie opened, finally taking the character seriously. Directed by a young Tim Burton, it starred Michael Keaton as Batman/Bruce Wayne & Jack Nicholson as The Joker. Its storyline told how Wayne saw his wealthy parents murdered in Gotham City and grew up dedicated to fighting crime.

The film’s production companies — Warner Bros., Guber-Peters & Polygram — took a big chance on Burton. His first features, PEE-WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE (1985) & BEETLEJUICE (1988), had attracted attention, but were smaller than BATMAN, which cost a then hefty $35M. I still recall having Burton and producer Jon Peters as guests at the time on my cable TV talk show on Movietime, which later became the E! channel. When I asked what he’d done before making his first films, Burton confided he’d been a waiter in a medieval theme restaurant in Burbank. That prompted Peters to interrupt with a smile: “And if this picture doesn’t work, you’ll be a waiter again!”

Happily, Burton’s directing career took off as BATMAN opened to $40.5M. It did $251.2M domestic & $411.6M worldwide on a budget of $35M. It also spawned two sequels. BATMAN RETURNS (1992) reteamed Burton & Keaton and added Danny DeVito as a new villain, the Penguin. It did  $162.9M domestic & $266.9M worldwide on a budget of $80M.

BATMAN FOREVER (1995), directed by Joel Schumacher with Val Kilmer as Batman plus two new villains — Tommy Lee Jones as Harvey Two-Face & Jim Carrey as the Riddler — did $184.1M domestic & $336.6M worldwide on a budget of $100M.

Schumacher’s 1997 reboot,  BATMAN & ROBIN, starring George Clooney as Batman, did $107.4M domestic & $238.3M worldwide on a budget of $125M.

Christopher Nolan’s dark BATMAN BEGINS (2005) starred Christian Bale and did $206.9M domestic & $375.6M worldwide on a budget of $150M. Nolan’s THE DARK KNIGHT (2008) did $535M domestic & $1B worldwide on a budget of $185M & THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (2012) did $348.1M domestic & $1.09B worldwide on a budget of $250M.

WB’s franchise reboot, THE BATMAN, opened Mar. 4, 2022. Directed by Matt Reeves (WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES), it starred Robert Pattinson as the Caped Crusader then in just his second year fighting crime. It did $369.8M domestic & $72.8M worldwide on a budget of $200M.