Vintage Newspaper Clipping: Salinas Californian "...Rich, Moody Symphonic Treat" August 17, 1989

With all the talk of Danny Elfman's Batman theme returning to movie theaters in "Justice League", I thought this little snippet from the Salinas Californian would make for an appropriate post today. Though the Prince album was burning up the charts, the writer recognized the masterpiece that is Elfman's score...

Vintage Newspaper Clipping: Variety The Entertainment Newspaper "Batman Swoops To Conquer" June 28 Through July 4, 1989

Batman's box office performance back in the summer of '89 is the stuff of legends... We hadn't seen a blockbuster of this caliber since Star Wars, and we'll likely never see one that matches it again. Today's posting of various articles from a vintage edition of the entertainment newspaper Variety sheds a little more light and just how awesome Batman's presence was back in June of 1989...





















Also included in this edition- "Batman: The Comic Connection"... A nice little article highlighting Batman's comic origins.













And we finish things off with this 3 page ad from Warner touting the film's success. They had every right to brag.

Vintage Newspaper Clipping: Santa Cruz Sentinel "Batman Breaks Box-Office Records" Tuesday, June 27, 1989

Given today's mega-blockbuster opening weekends, it is sometimes easy to forget just how impressive Batman's performance was back in the summer of '89. Batman generated huge numbers (even larger when adjusted for inflation) in a summer that was filled to the brim with giant films that included Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade, Ghostbusters 2, and Star Trek V. This article from the Santa Cruz Sentinel gives a great breakdown on just how succinctly Batman walloped the competition.

Vintage Newspaper Clipping: USA Weekend "Batman And His Maker" June 12-14, 1992

This June '92 edition of USA Weekend doesn't offer much in the way of news on Batman Returns... but it does feature some great insight into its director, Tim Burton! Read on to find out about Burton's early days in cinema, how he dealt with the pressure of filming Batman, which of his films he felt was his "most personal", and even hear a few tales from his cat-loving mother... All crammed into a mere 3 pages of text! Enjoy!

Special Feature: The Newspaper Advertising Campaign For Batman's Theatrical Run

Another new feature to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Tim Burton's Batman! When Batman hit theaters back in 1989, there were no such things as Movietickets.com, Fandango, or Google to find which of your local cinemas might be showing the film. Nope- If you wanted to know when and where to see a new movie back then, your best bet was perusing the Entertainment section of your local newspaper. I have no clue if this is still the case (as I haven't looked through an actual newspaper in years), but back when I grew up, the paper was our number one source for movie theater info.

I loved checking out all the ads for current films back then. Judging which were going to be the "big films" by the size of their ad, cutting out my favorites & sticking them to my wall, and monitoring which flick's dwindling advertisement space would indicate its imminent arrival at the cheapy theaters. Ah, memories...

Of course with it being one of the biggest box office films of all-time, Batman had quite an extensive array of print ads during its theatrical run; From the tiny 1" x 1" column blurb to the full blown broadsheet. Presented here today is an archive of those ads, each one reproduced from original ad slicks to offer the best quality possible. Enjoy!