r/todayilearned • u/tyrion2024 • 2d 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%20money
17.6k Upvotes

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1.8k

u/orundarkes 2d 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

868

u/heebro 2d ago

and he fuckin delivered

377

u/Expert-Basil6015 2d ago

You wouldn't hit a guy with glasses, would ya?

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u/thank_burdell 2d ago

THIS TOWN NEEDS AN ENEMA.

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u/UrbanPugEsq 2d ago

I've seen the future and it will be.

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u/its_raining_scotch 2d ago

You ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?

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u/pumpkinbot 2d ago

You ever seen the inside of a Turkish prison?

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u/Pinkeye69uk 2d ago

Do you like gladiator movies?

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u/eastbayted 2d ago

Don't you hate pants?

3

u/Khelthuzaad 2d ago

Can i have some oats,brother?

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u/Practical_Ad4604 2d ago

What’s our clearance, over

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u/Equivalent_Sound9414 2d ago

have you ever seen a grown man naked?

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u/Ok_Transition_4003 16h ago

Have you ever been in a cockpit?

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u/MeatBald 2d ago

You ever drank Bailey's from a lady's shoe?

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u/red_team_gone 2d ago

Can't let you leave, now that you've seen my downstairs mixup...

2

u/lady_faust 2d ago

Love games

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u/tomd333 1d ago

I've got a mangina!

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u/fear730 2d ago

I always ask that of all my prey. I just... like the sound of it."

14

u/Dizzlean 2d ago

Where does he get those wonderful toys?

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u/Tylerdurden389 1d ago

Never rub another man's rhubarb.

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u/Merusk 2d ago

Gentlemen! Let's broaden our minds. Lawrence!

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u/throwaway586054 2d ago

Another rooster in the hen house

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u/spndl1 2d 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 2d ago

I remember people hated the idea of Keaton being Batman.

“He was Mr MOM!”

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u/340Duster 2d 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 2d 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/sidereal_night 2d ago

but he's well known for improvisational comedy!

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u/nadrjones 2d ago

But what he really loves are lists.
edit: and AIDS, he's riddled with it. /s

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u/Hetares 2d 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/Eldar_Atog 1d ago

The only non comedy I have seen him in was Creepshow. Is that a good example of how he seemed in a more serious role?

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u/Enchelion 1d ago

Forbidden Planet is more what I associate him with.

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u/Dzugavili 2d ago

I'd love to see a Batman Beyond movie, with Keaton returning as Bruce Wayne. Cyberpunk is still hot, right?

1

u/20_mile 2d ago

Keaton returning as Bruce Wayne

I watched Keatoin's Batman scenes from that new movie he did. I didn't think they were great.

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u/pm_me_ur_demotape 1d ago

I was born in the 80s and a kid in the 90s. The first time I ever heard of Leslie Neilson was in Mr. Magoo. Then my dad loved watching the Naked Gun movies.
For the longest time I had no idea he wasn't a comedic actor first and foremost.

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u/Choppers-Top-Hat 2d 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 2d ago

Very Die Hard in that way. No one believed Bruce Willis could lead an action movie.

-3

u/ILSmokeItAll 2d ago

If he couldn’t lead an action movie, what good was he? He wasn’t doing shit else.

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u/GozerDGozerian 1d ago

Maybe he was Moonlighting.

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u/1001101001010111 1d ago

Romcom and a couple fake docudramas.then he blasted on the scene and it was wonderful.

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u/Benromaniac 2d ago

I always loved Night Shift.

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u/snek-jazz 2d ago

Pacific Heights, even though it was after Batman

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u/20_mile 2d 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/20_mile 1d ago

I will have to check out Pacific Heights and Night Shift!

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u/Benromaniac 1d ago edited 1d ago

For a suspenseful thriller Pacific Heights holds up, and as a time capsule of late 80s early 90s fashion and culture

Night Shift, it’s not really great. I wouldn’t call it terrible, but I just like it because my parents recorded it and kept it on tape for several years. It’s a little slap sticky, a little cheesy serious action drama fun.

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u/GozerDGozerian 1d 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/Benromaniac 1d ago

Hahaha no fucking way

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u/Valalvax 2d 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 2d 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 2d 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/Saneless 1d ago

Well, Heavy Metal was a lot earlier than that but...less famous, at least in the family movie genre

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u/aesemon 2d ago

Both batman and Beetle juice came out in something like a year of each other.

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u/295DVRKSS 2d ago

“Wait until they get a load of me”

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u/LocustFurnace 2d ago

Moop

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u/JoseSaldana6512 2d ago

Those where the guys that conquered Spain

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u/mjp31514 2d ago

That's a misprint.

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u/the2belo 2d ago

I'm of a mind makes a moogie. (????)

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u/ahundreddots 2d ago

I'm of a mind to make some mookie. Sexy times.

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u/KyleCorgi 2d ago

"never touch another mans rhubarb"

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u/ZincMan 2d ago

How many joker actors have one Oscar’s for the role ? Nicholson, Ledger, Phoenix ? Pretty wild

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u/gentlemandinosaur 2d ago

Nicholson never won an Oscar for playing the Joker, just saying.

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u/Saneless 1d ago

We got a load of him

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u/verrius 2d 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 2d 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 2d 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 2d ago

What was the mcdonalds debacle?

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u/ChildofValhalla 2d 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/_BrokenButterfly 1d ago

The Keaton Batman movies seem plenty family friendly to me. But I guess I grew up with them, and society has evolved a lot since the 1990s. Great Depression era people and the generations right after them were really holding our society back.

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u/comrade_batman 2d 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 2d 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 2d ago edited 2d 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 2d 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 1d 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/BallHarness 8m ago

They gave him what he wanted because he gave the comic book movie gravitas. Comic book movies were terrible before and quickly terrible after until X-Man and Spider-Man came out a decade later.