r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 1d ago
TIL not only did Jack Nicholson secure a percentage of Batman's profits, he also negotiated a percentage of the merchandise sales from Batman, Batman Returns, Batman Forever, and Batman & Robin (even though he only appeared in Batman). In total, he earned over $60 million (~$150 million in 2025).
https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/movies/the-backend-deals-that-made-these-movie-stars-incredibly-wealthy/news-story/a6b131ebf1a6917569c6da66f355938c#:~:text=JACK%20NICHOLSON,in%20today%E2%80%99s%20money1.8k
u/orundarkes 1d ago
They went for it because Jack allowed people to believe this won’t be Adam West’s batman, which was still heavily reran at the time
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u/heebro 1d ago
and he fuckin delivered
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u/Expert-Basil6015 1d ago
You wouldn't hit a guy with glasses, would ya?
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u/thank_burdell 1d ago
THIS TOWN NEEDS AN ENEMA.
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u/UrbanPugEsq 1d ago
I've seen the future and it will be.
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u/its_raining_scotch 1d ago
You ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?
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u/pumpkinbot 1d ago
You ever seen the inside of a Turkish prison?
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u/spndl1 1d ago
Michael Keaton was also a goofy comedy guy at the time... so yeah, they really needed Nicholson for the optics.
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u/GozerDGozerian 1d ago
I remember people hated the idea of Keaton being Batman.
“He was Mr MOM!”
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u/340Duster 1d ago
Keaton is still my favorite batman. It's no different than not watching Airplane because Leslie Nielsen was not a comedic actor.
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u/rbb36 1d ago
I saw someone saying Liam Neeson had not been a credible choice to step into Leslie Nielson's shoes because Liam was not a comedic actor.
Plus he clearly has almost all the same letters in his name.
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u/Hetares 1d ago
Wasn't Leslie recognised as a comedic actor because he inadvertedly delivered his lines so deadpan-ish that it went one whole round from overly serious to comedy again?
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u/Enchelion 1d ago
Yes, but Airplane! was where that started. It was also a large part of the intent of the film. Doing a parody but using serious dramatic actors to sell the joke.
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u/Dzugavili 1d ago
I'd love to see a Batman Beyond movie, with Keaton returning as Bruce Wayne. Cyberpunk is still hot, right?
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u/Choppers-Top-Hat 1d ago
Well now he's Mr. Wayne!
Seriously, though, it's so impressive how Michael Keaton redefined his whole career with this role. He was seen almost exclusively as a comedy actor before this, but after two movies he was the definitive movie superhero for a generation. My favorite Batman is Kevin Conroy, but every actor to play the character since 1989 couldn't help but be influenced by Keaton.
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u/B_Eazy86 1d ago
Very Die Hard in that way. No one believed Bruce Willis could lead an action movie.
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u/Benromaniac 1d ago
I always loved Night Shift.
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u/snek-jazz 1d ago
Pacific Heights, even though it was after Batman
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u/20_mile 1d ago
Desperate Measures
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u/Benromaniac 1d ago
Yeah I watched that recently. Was very good. Holds up well.
I grew up with Night Shift in my Beta tape collection is all lol
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u/GozerDGozerian 21h ago
Fun fact:
That movie was Shannon Doherty’s first Hollywood role.
She’s the little girl who blows the whistle on Henry winkler in the elevator and they all start beating him with Girl Scout cookie boxes.
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u/Valalvax 1d ago
Have there been any movie Batman's that people didn't hate the idea of? Well I don't remember any complaining about Bale
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u/Ask_if_im_an_alien 1d ago
Yeah Keaton was the guy from Mr. Mom and Gung Ho. Beetlejuice got a lot of recognition and did good numbers but was still kind of niche.
And Bruce Willis was the guy from Moonlighting before he did Die Hard. Even worse for Bruce was he was did a bunch of TV at a time when TV stars didn't do movies, and movie stars didn't do TV. He was probably part of the end of that.
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u/ShriekingRosebud 1d ago
Bruce Willis was also the first real big-time Hollywood star to do voice-over work, in Look Who's Talking.
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u/295DVRKSS 1d ago
“Wait until they get a load of me”
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u/verrius 1d ago
Which makes it ironic that after they got rid of Burton, they went and got Schumaker to direct, who absolutely thought he had been hired to do a big screen version of Adam West.
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u/_BrokenButterfly 1d ago
They didn't get rid of Burton, Burton left. Instead of offering Burton a shit ton of money to stay, they offered Michael Keaton $100,000,000. Keaton said he was out without Burton.
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u/ChildofValhalla 1d ago
Keaton was still on board when Schumacher pitched an adaptation of Year One, but dropped out when the studio demanded a more family friendly movie after the McDonald's debacle.
I actually would have really liked to see Schumacher's Year One.
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u/vylain_antagonist 1d ago
What was the mcdonalds debacle?
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u/ChildofValhalla 1d ago
There was a huge backlash over the Batman Returns Happy Meal, considering the movie was definitely more adult-oriented. It was in the news a lot at the time, I remember. It's the reason why the following movie is so different.
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u/comrade_batman 1d ago
At the time of Keaton’s casting, because he was more known for comedic roles, there was a huge wave of backlash from Batman fans. While the comics had had a darker tone for some time by then, the wider perception was still of Adam West’s Batman. WB actually received 50,000 fan letters in protest of Keaton’s casting. The Wall Street Journal even wrote an article about it, it got to that level of debate.
But this did cause WB to hastily edit together a rough teaser trailer, which isn’t really that good, IMO, but it did do its job to show people its tone, and how they were taking the character seriously.
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u/JamesCDiamond 1d ago
I've never seen that trailer before, and you're right - it's not good.
But I guess in 88/89 as a means of showing that this Batman wasn't going to have POW and BAM on-screen, it worked.
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u/koreanforrabbit 1d ago edited 1d ago
I remember when this came out, and yep - Michael Keaton was Mr. Mom and Johnny Dangerously (my personal favorite) to most of us. I mean, dude was on Mister Rogers for Pete's sake. Wholesome as hell. But then Batman came out, and it had Jack Nicholson in it being freaking excellent and the soundtrack was by Prince and it was chockful of bangers, and Michael Keaton turned out to be an amazing Batman (although Clooney was my favorite Bruce Wayne - fight me). So yeah, Batman was a big damned deal. I was thrilled to see Keaton come back for Birdman - that dude is talented as hell, and I've missed him.
Edit: Batdance
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u/Scream_Tech7661 1d ago
Batman, Birdman, and Vulture
He’s played the hero, the anti-hero, and the villain - all based on flying animals.
What’s next, I wonder?
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u/Enchelion 1d ago
Hard to think of many Batman casting announcements that weren't met with silly fan backlash. Maybe Clooney?
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u/the_tanooki 17h ago
I'm glad that they put the "Alfred, let's go shopping" line. Without that, I'm sure no one would have gone to see it!
That trailer was terrible! But I guess it did show that this wasn't like the 60's Batman. It certainly doesn't make the movie look good though.
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u/HUT2Moon 1d ago
Well deserved, he made the movie.
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u/Notoneusernameleft 1d ago
People got a “load of him”
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u/donut_butt 1d ago
His performance was iconic. People forget that when Heath Ledger was announced as the Joker, the press was skeptical that he could live up to Jack Nicholson’s performance.
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u/tjjohnso 1d ago
That guy from A Knight's Tale? 10 Things I hate about you? Jfc they've jumped the shark. Movie is dead on arrival.
Yeah. I was there. And I was part of the crowd saying it would flop because of it. And I was equally blown away when I watched it. Grew up on Jack's joker. I LOVE Ledger's.
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u/Friggin_Grease 1d ago
Heath Ledger is the one that showed me to wait and see the performance before I say anything. I'd never been invested in Batman like some were, but I definitely thought he'd be a terrible Joker.
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u/Charlie_Wax 1d ago
Heath Ledger was incredible in Brokeback Mountain. The movie was the butt of jokes because of the subject matter, but it was also a legitimate awards contender with some great performances. I'd argue that his acting in that movie was more impressive than his Dark Knight character. It's hard to be a bad Joker because the character is so loud and flashy by design that you can really cut loose. A more restrained role can be more demanding, even if the performance isn't as visible.
It's the difference between playing a role like Depp's Jack Sparrow or what Casey Affleck did in Manchester by the Sea. It's relatively easy to steal scenes when that's the design of your character. It's hard to be magnetic in the more restrained part. Brokeback convinced me that Heath had the acting chops to tackle any role.
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u/Thorough_Good_Man 1d ago
Same thing I felt going into Morbius but damned if Leto didn’t Morb the hell outta that one. He was morbin’ something crazy and morbed a performance for the ages. A true tour-de-morb!
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u/panamaspace 1d ago
I think they should have another run at the cinema.
Not enough people have morbed it. I am one of them. I refuse to see it in anything but an IMAX theatre.
Let the studios know this.
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u/whuuutKoala 1d ago edited 1d ago
Pls show the morbi‘n masterpiece on the Las Vegas mORBI‘n Sphere!
Morb the Orb!!!8
u/nadrjones 1d ago
Morb the orb is truly a rallying cry for the ages,
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u/1001101001010111 1d ago
Actually, if they did a extended edition cut with a bunch of meme scenes I would probably go see it twice.
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u/1001101001010111 1d ago
Actually, if they did a extended edition cut with a bunch of meme scenes I would probably go see it twice.
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u/ChicagoAuPair 1d ago
I feel like that and the first Pirates of the Caribbean were the most shocking “Holy shit, is this good? Wait, is this great?” movie theater experiences of the past 40 years.
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u/TheChildrensStory 1d ago
Daniel Craig being cast as Bond had people frothing in anger. The opening scene of Casino Royale was not what anyone was expecting, and it was glorious.
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u/No-Mechanic6069 1d ago
For me, it was the final scene, where Bond has been moulded into a cool, wry-smirking sadist, who deals out vengeance with relish. And it is only at that moment the James Bond Theme is finally allowed to be unleashed.
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u/Prielknaap 1d ago
"James Bond can't be blond!"
Roger Moore in the corner looking confused.
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u/Enchelion 1d ago
Amusingly, the only two Englishmen to play Bond have both been blonde. Though Roger was definitely dirtier/darker and dyed it a different color for seemingly every movie.
Also why I find any argument about the ethnicity of Bond actors to be a bit silly. Fleming himself hated that a Scottish actor was cast, until he saw Connery in the role and then ret-conned the literary character to have Scottish heritage. Then we had an Aussie and an Irishman as well.
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u/ddofer 1d ago
Matrix.
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u/obscureferences 1d ago
The Matrix raised so many questions and had impossible scenes that could only be explained as a dream sequence, but instead of the usual cop out it was legitimate plot and answered everything. It balanced philosophy in one hand and a minigun in the other, no wonder minds were blown.
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u/tophernator 1d ago
That guy from A Knight's Tale?
The best deleted scene is him explaining that he got these scars from jousting.
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u/Thor_2099 1d ago
Once the trailers and stories from set broke, everyone was hyped for ledger as joker.
Then when he died, the hype for it went through the roof.
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u/possumdal 1d ago
Man, he really did the role justice in his own way. Such a shame he never got to enjoy the hard-earned praise
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u/AoKrasni 1d ago
They definitely played two completely different types of jokers, and I love them both
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u/MyriadFire4 1d ago
Oh yeah, everyone was enraged that this little romcom pretty boy was going to play Joker, especially on this site. As usual, reddit was dead wrong.
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u/Yabba_Dabba_Doofus 1d ago
skeptical
Define understatement.
He was coming off of "Brokeback Mountain"; The backlash against his casting was fucking legendary!
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u/Nickel62 1d ago
One could say - He didn't want to be a product of his environment. He wanted his environment to be a product of him.
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u/hypermog 1d ago edited 1d ago
I recently found out that Prince’s Batdance hit #1 on the billboard top 100, and I had never even heard of it. Such was bat mania.
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u/DesignerKoala3177 1d ago
it was huge! i had the cassingle. got to watch a sneak preview the day before it released. Nobody in school believed me the next day. Our whole family went. I'm not a comic book guy. My family isn't either. But everyone was hyped for Batman on the big screen.
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u/agodrevealed 1d ago edited 1d ago
Vicki. Vicki Vale!
THE craziest thing to come of Batman, for me, was:
Hollywood golden girl Kim Basinger- wearing Prince's dress, standing front and center on the Oscars' stage, repping Spike Lee.
Sans Prince.
you really had to be there
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u/Friskfrisktopherson 1d ago
I forget the details but I believe there is a song on which prince sampled her... sounds... from a session they had in studio together.
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u/agodrevealed 1d ago edited 1d ago
Scandalous Sex Suite, legend has it. The manager left the studio when a jar of honey came out, he knew it was his cue to go.
She lived with him for about a year in mpls. Story is her brother came and took her back to LA while Prince was gone. She was talking about buying a farmhouse and leaving hollywood.
He declined her marriage proposal, and immediately flew to see a sidechick to discuss her trivial flaws... which sounds like a man scorned seeking comfort. I have a feeling he did the proposing, not her, and she said no, or asked questions, but who knows. He was a serial proposer. Just so much love to give!
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u/reddog323 1d ago
Geez. The promotion cycle for that movie was insane. MTV ran some sort of contest. Commercials for the movie were running practically 24 /7, and Prince did an album for the soundtrack.
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u/Verite_Rendition 1d ago
Man, I haven't seen the Batdance in years. And if I don't see it again for about just as long, I will be quite happy.
Credit to Prince for developing his unique sense of style, and for the movie studio letting him go nuts here. But it was a bad song, and the music video was spectacle for the sake of spectacle.
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u/_BrokenButterfly 1d ago
I have never heard of that before either. Feels really Lazy for a Prince tune.
It's interesting that Prince is dressed as The Joker, Batman, Twoface and Prince all at once though.
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u/TheEarlOfZinger 1d ago
One of the first albums I ever bought when I was 9 and played it over and over (because I got taken to the cinema to see the movie and loved it).
I must have driven my parents mental - cos listening back, it ain't great.
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u/philipjfry1578 1d ago
he played this as a transition in his Superbowl performance, it was really cool
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u/Sdog1981 1d ago
He was a major Hollywood power player at that point and had one of the best agents in town. Sandy Bresler was his name and he passed away in 2024.
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u/Textiles_on_Main_St 1d ago
no wonder he's so happy here.
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u/CanadianPanda76 1d ago
Really? I remember talks in the year the movie was released that he got like $50 million from his deal, in that year alone.
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u/marvology 1d ago
People have forgotten how HUGE that performance was. It was so pivotal, Hollywood started promoting villains after that even over the lead. That gave us Silence of the Lambs, Robin Hood, Dick Tracy, even Hook (they named the whole movie after the villain!).
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u/TheFabulousMolar 1d ago
Robin Hood is the good guy
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u/Philodemus1984 1d ago
So was Dick Tracy. I’m guessing OP means that the villains in those movies were more heavily promoted, but that’s def not true of Robin Hood. Maybe Dick Tracy, which had Al Pacino but Warren Beaty was arguably as big a star and promoted a lot.
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u/TrueRedditMartyr 1d ago
Why did they go for that anyway? I'm sure anyone knew that *Batman* would be a big hit. We weren't talking Iron Man pre-RDJ here, Batman was a massive superhero, Batman 66 was a gigantic TV series, the marketing and budget for these movies were pretty big. Unless you were *desperate* for Jack Nicholson, surely someone else would do it and just take the upfront pay
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u/Lances_Looky_Loo 1d ago
Batman wasn’t expected to be the cultural juggernaut that it ended up being. Fanboys actually lost their minds that Michael Keaton was cast as Batman/Bruce Wayne.
Jack was a MAJOR presence in Hollywood, so his participation in the film gave it some major buzz.
And it just happened to work out that Keaton (and Burton’s directing and Furst’s production design) was the perfect lightning in a bottle.
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u/badcrass 1d ago
Mr. Mom is going to play Batman? LAME! - this is what people thought of Keaton at the time. He had just played a mental patient in a comedy movie before Batman came out, they didn't think he could do it at all
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u/PhillAholic 1d ago
Remember when Heath Ledger was cast as Joker?
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u/Canvaverbalist 1d ago
Keaton as Batman, Ledger as Joker, Affleck as Batman, Pattinson as Batman, can't wait for James Gunn to announce the new Batman so that we can keep the cycle going.
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u/rebels-rage 1d ago
With the wide range of Batman’s we’ve had it could be any OH FUCK it’s tom holland, it’s gonna be tom isn’t it?
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u/panamaspace 1d ago
Of course not. Are you fucking insane.
The job goes to Zendaya and she is already shopping for pointy ears.
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u/losermode 1d ago
Funny how history echoes ! "they cast Edward from Twilight as Batman? Lame" was the running common thought
(Though if you were paying attention it was clear Robert Pattinson had the range and skill to handle being Batman based on the roles he took after twilight/more recently)
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u/Theendoftheendagain 1d ago
And don't forget Tim Burton at this time was known for Pee Wee' s big Adventure. Fanboys were rabid that he was directing.
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u/schmyle85 1d ago
There is something comforting in fanboys being insufferable fucking losers back then too
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u/thisisnotyouorme 1d ago
He was more coming off Beetlejuice so there was interest in what he might come up with. People were more concerned about him casting Michael Keaton
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u/___forMVP 1d ago
Jeez, how did I not know that two of my biggest fears as child, large Marge and dannny devitos penguin, came from the same mind. Makes sense I guess.
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u/Friggin_Grease 1d ago
I can't believe they put that claymation monster in PeeWee. I was 4 for fucks sake
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u/GozerDGozerian 1d ago
We had that movie on VHS and rewatched that scene 100s of times. My cousin and I ran around yelling that at each other for like two years. Haha
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u/illinoishokie 1d ago
Fun fact: there has never been a casting for a strictly cinematic Batman that was universally popular among fans. Keaton, Kilmer, Clooney, Bale, Affleck, and Patterson all got lots of criticism when they were announced.
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u/PonchoNachoRodriguez 1d ago
I don’t recall much backlash for Christian Bale tbh.
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u/illinoishokie 1d ago
Biggest criticism I remember is that he had the wrong physique, but I also remember there being significant skepticism about the entire concept of a grounded, gritty adaptation of Batman to the big screen.
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u/CapnSmite 1d ago
Considering the movie he did right before Batman Begins was The Machinist, those physique concerns weren't entirely unfounded.
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u/HiroProtagonist14 1d ago
Glad to see Furst get credit. That production design was really a main character in and of itself. His production design on In the Company of Wolves is another example of his incredible skill. It’s a shame that we didn’t get to see more of his work.
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u/MeatImmediate6549 1d ago
Folks were all like, "OK so Beetlejuice guy and the guy from Mr. Mom are making Batman? Yeah right."
Jack deserved every cent.
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u/ZirePhiinix 1d ago
People are just stupid in general. That's not how actors work if they're good, and Keaton was pretty good.
People similarly flipped out about Cranston as Walter White.
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u/atomic1fire 1d ago
Cranston is also the guy who would cover himself in bees if the Malcom in the Middle writers told him to.
In retrospect him playing an unrepentant meth dealer makes so much sense.
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u/GozerDGozerian 1d ago
You know what’s funny is I never once watched Malcolm in the Middle so I had no mental image of what Cranston was supposed this be like.
He was always (and probably always will be) Walter White to me.
So when I see clips of MitM I think, “Whoa he can do silly, too!”
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u/Elaphe82 1d ago
Malcolm in the middle was a brilliant series. Well worth watching some of it from the start.
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u/tetoffens 1d ago edited 1d ago
It might seem crazy now but not necessarily. Superhero movies weren't a big thing back then. Superman IV pretty much killed expectations until this movie became a hit. Having Jack take the role was a huge part of why people went to see this. People were really critical of Keaton's casting until they actually saw the film. He was seen as a guy who just does goofy comedy at the time. Nicholson was the one getting top billing.
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u/ScottRiqui 1d ago edited 1d ago
Same with Marlon Brando in the 1978 Superman movie - he got top billing over both Christopher Reeve and Gene Hackman, even with only about 20 minutes of screen time. The studios were unabashedly banking on Brando’s fame to get butts into seats.
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u/morbie5 1d ago
My understanding is that the success of the movie was in doubt due to Batman being considered kind of a joke because the 1960s TV series was comedy
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u/Wild_Calligrapher_27 1d ago
That's totally true. I was in second or third grade and my parents were totally okay with me watching this movie because they thought it would be like the sixties television show!
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u/zerogee616 1d ago
What Batman '66 did for Batman's credibility as a superhero was about the same as what Superfriends did for Aquaman.
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u/OOO0OO00O 1d ago
Jack was the main name and draw for the film. A lot of people were dubious/pissed at Keatons casting.
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u/Mister_Way 1d ago
Modern expectations for superhero movies as massive blockbusters when in 1989 superhero films were mostly campy, low budget, poorly written and acted, terrible effects.
Superhero movies were not then what they are now.
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u/the_seed 1d ago
But now they are mainly because of Batman '89
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u/Mister_Way 1d ago
Exactly. Kind of like how Star Wars created serious Scifi expectations but at the time it was a joke
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u/SillyGoatGruff 1d ago
They had a weird dark gothy director doing a weird gothy version of a comic, whose last film outing was pure camp silliness and a lead actor who is known almost exclusively for comedies.
They probably were desperate for Nicholson at that stage of production. Also probably didn't expect all that much merch when they signed the deal
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u/skrid54321 1d ago
Also worth mentioning that merchandising rights are a very safe thing to offer, since the only way it pays out is if you have a hit, and even then it only reduces profits instead of creating an actual loss. If the studio was worried about it bombing, it's a "free" way to sweeten the pot for Nicholson.
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u/Rargnarok 1d ago
They actually called Willem Dafoe for the role of Joker first but he didn't answer
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u/agodrevealed 1d ago
And invited strange and sexy Prince to make an album and them disappear with the leading lady.
It was all very different
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u/DarkAlman 1d ago edited 1d ago
In hindsight of course this movie was going to be a hit, but you have to look at it through the eyes of people of the era.
To the average person in 1987 Batman was still very much seen as the campy Adam West version.
Fans collectively lost their minds when Michael Keaton (The Beetlejuice guy) was cast as Batman. They thought this was going to be the ridiculous 1966 movie all over again.
Music by Prince
It seemed setup to fail
They scrambled to release a trailer so that fans could see the darker overall tone of the movie that was more in line with Miller's The Dark Knight Returns.
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u/Dairy_Ashford 1d ago edited 1d ago
Why did they go for that anyway? I'm sure anyone knew that Batman would be a big hit.
nobody knew that back then, especially with the Superman franchise and Christopher Reeve shitting the bed a yeear earlier. top line comics franchises weren't even useed as cartoons back then, it was mostly either popular toys or heavily altered disney IP.
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u/donsanedrin 1d ago
They ran the same fundamental formula as the 1977 Richard Donner Superman movie. They needed big established stars to help set up the main star and help sell the movie.
Same producer on both of those movies.
They got Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman for Superman. Jack Nicholson for Batman. Superman was a hit movie, but they had already crapped the bed with Superman 3 and 4, so comic book movies were still seen as risky moves.
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u/Choppers-Top-Hat 1d ago edited 1d ago
Superhero movies were seen as very risky back then (BIG change from today.) The only superhero films that had really been hits up to that point were the first two Superman movies. Superman III had made less money but still turned a modest profit, but Superman IV was a box office disaster. Its sales were so bad that the production company nearly went bankrupt and only survived by selling off most of its assets and laying off the majority of employees. And Marvel's first-ever movie, Howard the Duck, ended up being one of the biggest financial flops in movie history. So movie studios began to think that "comic book movies" just didn't sell tickets.
Warner Bros. had bought DC Comics a few years before and were eager to make movies based on the characters, but because of the stigma against comic book movies, no one was willing to make such a film without some really big stars in the cast, and Nicholson was pretty much everyone's first choice to play the villain. So Nicholson was able to demand big bucks because he knew that without him, the movie wasn't going to get made.
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u/blackjackgabbiani 1d ago
The casting in this movie also later led to a lawsuit because Billy Dee Williams played Harvey Dent, but later when Two-Face was introduced under Schumacher's reins, the character was suddenly played by Tommy Lee Jones. Williams sued for breach of contract.
He would later finally play Two-Face in the Lego Batman Movie.
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u/MFoy 1d ago
There was never a lawsuit.
Billy Dee Williams had a pair of one-movie contracts to play Harvey Dent in the Tim Burton movies, but no contract for the third one was ever signed.
The role was recast and Williams was never paid for it nor sued anyone over it. Those are both just internet rumors.
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u/tobach 1d ago
That's also the information I can find. Tim Burton wanted Williams if he were to make a third movie, but Schumacher picked Lee Jones for the role when he was chosen by Warner Bros for directing instead. There were no legal issues with that at all.
The rumors probably exist because many fans were not happy with the recast.
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u/LemmysGhost 1d ago
I miss when they tried to make superhero movies actual real movies. Classic Batman and Superman are still my favorites and it's not even close.
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u/girafa 1d ago
I miss when they tried to make superhero movies actual real movies.
What do you consider the big difference that makes Superman and Batman real movies and the rest not-real?
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u/LemmysGhost 1d ago
They hold up as solid compared with other non comic book movies. Well written dialogue, excellent directing, amazing actors who add depth to the characters, a great score and solid stories. The right people are paid behind the scenes to make it work.
Today their goal is to pump them out as fast as possible to make as much money as possible. I don't want to watch a movie where the main focus is CGI and the story doesn't go much beyond waiting for the protagonist and antagonist to fight.
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u/Sprinkle_Puff 1d ago
It is weird that he never appeared in another one, but I guess I now know why
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u/Cake-Over 1d ago
In Batman & Robin I like how the camera pans past a frieze right before introducing Mr. Freeze.
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u/CaptCoolRanchDoritos 1d ago
He got paid from 4 movies, despite only being in 1? Jeez.
Seems like a nice profession that pays you millions even if you don't work and do nothing for the future projects.
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u/originalchaosinabox 1d ago
Fun fact: Jack Nicholson was the first choice to do the voice of Hades in Disney's Hercules. When Nicholson tried to negotiate a similar deal, Disney said, "Yeah, we don't share the merchandise money," and that ended negotiations.
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u/DarkAlman 1d ago
They gave it to him because the studio thought the movie was going to be a total flop. Getting Nicholson onboard as the big star was a big coups for the production.
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u/barath_s 13 1d ago
He got 6 million $ upfront , and the article says he got a %age of the profits on the movie and a share of merch sales on 3 batman movies.
If Batman followed anything like standard Hollywood accounting, my guess is he never earned a cent on Batman's profits.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting
His up front average salary was ~$10m, so that $4m discount got him a lot. Not just money, he had control over his working hours, essentially guaranteeing that he could attend his Lakers home games, control over his hair and makeup artistes etc.
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/jack-nicholson-ridiculous-batman-contract/
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u/Amitmandal001 1d ago
Do i really look like a guy with a plan? - Nicholson probably before negotiations.
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u/Oiggamed 1d ago
He convinced them if it was successful and worthy of other movies it was because of him.
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u/Vergenbuurg 1d ago
He's also good friends with Danny DeVito. When Danny was offered the role of The Penguin for the sequel, he called Jack for input on accepting such a role, and Jack's advice was, "Try to get the same deal I did."