Batmania: When Batman Ruled the Summer of 1989
“ Flop ” is how merchandising research group Marketing Evaluation Inc.assessedthe box bureau potential of the 1989 Warner Bros. filmBatman . The big - budget production , directed by Tim Burton and co - starring Michael Keaton as Batman and Jack Nicholson as the Joker , was expected to be one of the rare times a major Hollywood studio took a comic book adaption seriously . But according to the marketing data , the character of Batman was not as pop as the Incredible Hulk , who was then appearing in a slate of made - for - television movies ....