Marvel and DC are titans of the comic book game, and through the years, they have taken their battle from the pages to the big screen in search of box office billions. We have seen iconic characters take the plunge for global audiences, and while things are solid now, there was a point when things weren’t as smooth.
Back in the 90s, George Clooney was cast to take on Batman, and pitted against him was none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze. The film had a lot of potential, and Schwarzenegger made a shocking amount of money. However, this project wound up going down in flames.
Let’s take a closer look at what happened with Batman & Robin.
He Made $25 Million For ‘Batman & Robin’
During the 90s, comic book movies weren’t quite what they are now, and Batman, in particular, was having a major shift on the big screen. For Batman & Robin, director Joel Schumacher elected to cast Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze, and Arnold was able to make a mint from starring in the film.
As we mentioned, Batman & Robin marked a huge change for the Dark Knight, who had been in three major films since the 80s. Not only had some key characters been recast, but the overall tone of the films shifted in dramatic ways. On the heels of Batman Forever being a box office success, Batman & Robin looked to make bank with huge names being in the cast.
For his role in the film, Arnold Schwarzenegger was paid $25 million. This was a colossal salary for the star, who had already been in countless hit films. Clearly, the folks at Warner Bros. thought that they had a smash hit in the making by giving Arnold such a large salary to play the villainous Mr. Freeze. The project was also set to feature Uma Thurman’s Poison Ivy, carrying the tradition of featuring multiple villains that the franchise had previously established.
As great as it was that Arnold was making bank, there was clearly not enough money to go around for all of the film’s stars to be making premier salaries.
George Clooney Only Made $1 Million
Now, you would think that a Batman movie starring George Clooney would, you know, pay the guy playing Batman a ton of money, but this was not the cast for Batman & Robin. While Arnold Schwarzenegger was making $25 million to play Mr. Freeze, George Clooney was only making $1 million to play the Caped Crusader.
Clooney was the third actor since the 80s to play Batman on the big screen, and it's surprising to see such a low number for his salary. Michael Keaton played Batman for two films, while Val Kilmer played the Dark Knight in Batman Forever, which was the last Batman film before Batman & Robin.
Despite Clooney starring in the series ER, he was not a major movie star at this point, and clearly, the studio was not willing to pay him a big salary for playing Batman. According to Celebrity Net Worth, Val Kilmer was paid $7 million to play Batman, so this was a huge pay decrease for Clooney.
Despite the massive budget for its villain and the fact that it had previous films to bolster its appeal, Batman & Robin did not perform the way that the studio was expecting.
The Film Was A Disaster
Released back in 1997, Batman & Robin wound up being the nail in the coffin for the Batman franchise that Tim Burton kicked off with Michael Keaton back in the 80s. This film received terrible reviews and was only able to make $238 million at the worldwide box office.
When speaking about the film, George Clooney would say, “The truth of the matter is, I was bad in it. Akiva Goldsman — who's won the Oscar for writing since then — he wrote the screenplay. And it's a terrible screenplay, he'll tell you. I'm terrible in it, I'll tell you. Joel Schumacher, who just passed away, directed it, and he'd say, 'Yeah, it didn't work.' We all whiffed on that one.”
After the failure of Batman & Robin, the Dark Knight was put out to pasture for years. Fortunately, Warner Bros. was wise enough to turn the character over to a guy by the name of Christopher Nolan, who released Batman Begins and reignited Batman’s success on the big screen. To this day, the Dark Knight trilogy is a superhero staple, and it would have never happened without Batman & Robin flopping.
Arnold Schwarzenegger made bank to play Mr. Freeze, but Batman & Robin was a flop at the box office.