Every Batman Actor’s Highest Grossing Movie, Ranked

During the Warner Bros. panel at CinemaCon earlier this year, after The Batman became one of the highest-grossing movies of the year, director Matt Reeves gave a promising update on the sequel, saying that he was “excited to jump back into this world for the next chapter.” The Dark Knight is a strong contender for the most popular superhero in the world.

The Bat’s big-screen adventures have rarely struggled at the box office. But some of the actors who played him, like Christian Bale and Robert Pattinson, have grossed more money at the box office than others, like Val Kilmer and George Clooney.

Adam West – Batman: The Movie ($3,900,000)

Adam West brought Batman into the mainstream with his delightfully campy ‘60s TV series, defined by on-screen sound effects and a very tight Batsuit. Between seasons, West and his co-star Burt Ward brought their goofy incarnations of Batman and Robin to the big screen in a movie that featured just about every baddie from Gotham’s rogues’ gallery.

According to the book The Fox That Got Away: The Last Days of the Zanuck Dynasty at Twentieth Century-Fox, West’s Batman movie grossed just $3.9 million in rentals. For the mid-1960s, that was a respectable box office haul – especially for a feature-length version of something that audiences were already getting for free on TV.

George Clooney – Batman & Robin ($238,235,719)

Like West, George Clooney only played Batman in one theatrically released movie. And like West’s movie, Clooney’s movie reveled in campness with wacky sight gags and corny one-liners. But unlike West’s movie, Clooney’s movie made it to nine figures at the global box office. According to Box Office Mojo, Batman & Robin grossed $238,235,719 worldwide.

This haul makes it one of the lowest-grossing Batman movies, and killed off the franchise for nearly a decade. It took Christopher Nolan completely reshaping the superhero genre to save the Batman franchise after the critical panning and commercial underperformance of Batman & Robin.

Val Kilmer – Batman Forever ($336,567,158)

Like West and Clooney, Val Kilmer only played Batman on the silver screen once. After Tim Burton and Michael Keaton decided not to come back for a third Batman movie, director Joel Schumacher continued their films’ continuity with the much zanier, sillier tone of Batman Forever. Kilmer played Bruce Wayne alongside Jim Carrey as the Riddler and Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face.

According to Box Office Mojo, the worldwide box office haul of Batman Forever is pitched somewhere in between that of Burton and Keaton’s two previous efforts at a decent $336,567,158.

Michael Keaton – Batman ($411,569,241)

When Michael Keaton was announced to play Bruce Wayne, the offices of Warner Bros. were flooded with complaint letters about the casting of a comedic actor in the role of a brooding antihero. But Keaton ended up winning over fans with a pitch-perfect portrayal of the Caped Crusader, and his dry comedic talents ended up humanizing the billionaire vigilante. Keaton teamed up with Tim Burton for two beautifully gloomy Batman movies that not only revitalized the character, but also proved that comic book movies could be viable blockbusters.

Thanks to Batman Returns’ controversially dark, horror-like tone, it underperformed at the box office and failed to outgross its predecessor. According to Box Office Mojo, Keaton’s first Batman movie made $411,569,241 and became the second highest-grossing film of 1989.

Robert Pattinson – The Batman ($770,836,163)

So far, Robert Pattinson has only played the Dark Knight in one movie, but he got his tenure off to a stellar start with the grisly thrills of The Batman earlier this year. Matt Reeves immersed Pattinson’s Batman in a bold, breathtaking new vision of Gotham City. Thanks to its 15 rating (owing to its gruesome violence and serial killer villain), The Batman faced an uphill struggle at the UK box office – but that didn’t hurt its overall total.

According to Box Office Mojo, The Batman grossed $770,836,163 globally. This would be an impressive figure for the first chapter of a trilogy in a normal moviegoing climate. But it was especially impressive when Hollywood was still feeling the effects of the pandemic.

Ben Affleck – Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice ($872,395,091)

When Zack Snyder was expanding the bleak world of Man of Steel into the DC Extended Universe and cast just about every major player in the Justice League, he chose Ben Affleck to play Bruce Wayne. Although Affleck’s casting was initially met with some controversy, the actor quickly proved himself to be perfect for the part with a decidedly brutal take on the Bat with an irrepressible rage boiling just under the surface.

Affleck played Batman in a few different movies – including two versions of Justice League – but according to The Numbers, none of his Dark Knight appearances managed to outgross his debut, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which raked in $872,395,091.

Christian Bale – The Dark Knight Rises ($1,081,041,287)

Each of Christopher Nolan’s wildly popular Batman movies made more money than the last. Christian Bale’s nuanced, multidimensional portrayal of the Bat was perfectly matched with the gritty, semi-realistic tone of The Dark Knight trilogy. Batman Begins made an admirable figure for a reboot of a franchise that had left a bad taste in audiences’ mouths with its last theatrical installment (the widely panned Batman & Robin). A couple of years later, The Dark Knight outperformed the origin story by surpassing the $1 billion mark.

Then, the big finale – The Dark Knight Rises, which some fans and critics felt was too big for its own good, overextending its reach with a sprawling Dickensian epic – managed to just about outdo its predecessor. According to Box Office Mojo, The Dark Knight Rises grossed $1,081,041,287 when it took the world by storm in the summer of 2012.

NEXT: The Dark Knight Rises & 9 Other Trilogy Closers That Faced Impossibly High Expectations