89 nostalgia...your memories of the hype

[shadowbat69]

Everyone that was alive in 1989 and old enough to know what was going on couldnt help but know about Batman. Share what you remember about the marketing of that summer.

[WingedFreak71]

i guess the sale of the bat symbol shirts by vendors around nyc weeks, (possibly months?) before the opening in 89 is what i remember most hype-wise - i mean i knew it'd be a big deal for me when it finally opened but to see the whole country sort of preparing for it was just something i'd never seen happen before with a film - it was like you could hear the thunder in the distance and couldn't wait for the storm to slam down!

what i saw in the previews made it all the more OK to start celebrating this film way before it actually opened - i went in to watch it on opening day knowing it would be great - and it's just as great today

wish i'd kept a count of how many times i've watched it though - doubt i can use the word hundreds for any other movie - maybe the blues brothers?

thanks for starting this forum!

[batman511]

I remember pretty much batman made 40+ Million in it's opening weekend. I saw it 3 times that june 23rd weekend.

[Paul (ral)]

I was 11 years old when Batman ⁸⁹ was released, but I remember Friday 11th August 1989 like it was yesterday.
The hype build up for the movie was unlike anything I had ever seen. The newspapers were full of articles about the movie in the upcoming weeks to the release. The one I remember the most was about how the movie had been declined a PG rating in the UK because it contained scenes of people with "acid-burnt" faces. Instead it would be the first movie to be given a 12 rating. I was excited and nervous in equal measure: Would I be allowed to see it? Would I be scared by the "acid-burnt" faces? Although the latter question was overshadowed by my excitmentment at seeing Michael Keaton on the front of a Batman comic I had just bought. That day, I met up with my friend who was going to the cinema with me that night and we talked for ages about how cool the movie would be and how gross the "acid-burnt" faces would be.

We went to the Downpatrick cinema that night (it is long gone now and has still never been replaced). It was an old fashioned cinema - one screen, balcony, showed one movie for a month, stopped for intervals - you know the sort. We, along with my father, sat up in the balcony - right hand side, second row from the front. During the title sequence I was in AWE. Where were we? In the batcave? No, it was revealed to be the bat sign. I, like many others, was hooked. After the showing my father took me to the projection room (I'm not sure if he knew the guys, he possibly did) and I was shown how the projectors worked, how they switched over, etc. I was amazed at the mess of it all. There were reels lying everywhere!
Superman 2 had been my first cinema experience, followed by Superman 3, Ghostbusters, Crocodile Dundee and others but Batman ⁸⁹ had been my best.

[shadowbat69]

I remember reading reports of the movie many months before the release, I couldnt get enough. The closer it got, the more aparant it became that Batman was going to be something big. You started to see the bat emblem everywhere. You couldnt walk into a store anywhere without seeing Batman merchandise, tshirts, toys, posters, cards, posters, jewelry, anything and everything had the bat emblem on it. Every time you turned on the T.V. there was a news report on it.

Opening day was 3 days before my birthday, so this was going to be my celebration. My mom had dropped me off at our local mall ( i was about to turn 16) and I spent my birthday money on a couple of posters, the official mag, a couple of the figures, buttons, and a hat. About an hour before the movie I made my way over to the theatre and was first in line. The line stretched all the way down the plaza before a half an hour. I will never forget the opening credits, I was just captivated for the entire 2 hours. I ended seeing the movie a total of 17 times in theatres between June 23rd and the end of the year. I never get tired f it, and every time I watch it, I can always remember the hype of that year.

[Paul (ral)]

I remember also on a childrens television program they announced that you should only buy official Batman T-shirts and hats, etc. that carry the Bat emblem.  The pirate-goods floating around (which i did buy) where in everyshop.

I just had a flashback! - I remember making my own cowl out of cardboard and black ducktape.  I don't have it anymore and I doubt it would rival Shawn's efforts!

[BurtonBatman]

I remember a trailer with miniguns popping out of the Batmobile, the Bat symbol posters, and Topps trading cards.  Good stuff

[nickdaring]

I was 11 when it came out too.

I remember thinking I was getting away with something when I saw it since the film was rated pg-13!

My main memories however come from the christmas afterwards when I got the tape of the movie. I'd watch that damn thing everyday for the next year.

I even have a crystal clear recollection of the commercials that came on before the movie started! Kids playing baseball PSA, a diet coke commercial, and then bugs and daffy duck trying to make you order a WB catalog.

Them were the days.

Nick

[thecolorsblend]

I remember how interested everyone was.  That's what really caught me.  I was (and remain) a Superman fan and back in those days I cared nothing about Batman but this freaking movie was on EVERYBODY'S radar.

I saw the B89 poster after seeing some movie or another and it remains a pivotal moment in my life.  Obviously the poster is just a close up of the symbol.  Nothing special... yet I couldn't stop staring at it.

Seeing the trailer (if that's what you want to call it) on TV pretty much solidified everything.  Whatever this Batdude was supposed to be about, I was gonna watch that movie for myself just to put an end to all this craziness.

The bat symbol was everywhere but Batman himself (perhaps characteristically) wasn't.  His likeness didn't seem to pop up on too much of the pre-release marketing stuff that I can remember.  That only intensified my desire to see this movie and figure out why everyone was so buzzed about it.

June 23rd!  I went into the B89 screening by no means an expert on the character.  I walked out a Batman-obsessed geek and it's been downhill ever since...

To this day, I believe B89's marketing campaign is the slickest we've ever seen.

[ZUPERZERO]

Hello i am from M?xico, and i remember when i was 11 years old my father was in Texas in the premiere weekend, and i travel to texas to join him and look "Batman", i really was expecting this movie because all the coments that were in programs like "entertainment tonight" only to see the trailers on tv was wonderful, that movie is my favorite since then, i remember the stores at the malls were full of batman memorabilia, then i return to mexico, and wait one or two months to the mexico premiere, and i remember the lines to get in to the cinema, was the longest i ever seen, in mexico city i saw 16 times that movie in a mall called "Plaza Universidad" in a cinema called "Dorado 70" was i big and old cinema. in mexico city the markets and "tianguis" were full of batman memorabilia too, that movie really came out in a hugh way, in mexico were many "pirate" products of batman it was very funny