Batman‘s next movie is set to break a major $8 billion milestone for the iconic DC hero, underlining just how vast his movie history and significance remains today. Batman has one of the most expansive movie rosters out of all the collective DC heroes, with a range of actors taking on the role of Batman, and a wide ᴀssortment of animated and live-action releases bringing his story to life.

Across the course of these releases and the decades that built them up, Batman has become more and more of a cinema staple, and a figure whose inherent box office draw has been demonstrated time and time again. That said, Batman’s next upcoming DC movie marks a majorly important milestone for the hero for one big 8 billion dollar reason.

Batman’s Movie History Has Built Up Some Major Box Office Results Over The Years

The Dark Knights Films Have Reached Major Milestones

Batman’s name is synonymous with some of the best and most well-known superhero movies of all time. The Dark Knight trilogy remain some of the biggest films in the superhero genre over a decade after the last film in the lineup released, and both they and the original 90s Batman movies shaped this genre considerably in their own distinctive ways.

There are few Batman films that aren’t important in the world of cinema in some way or another, even if some of these impacts were more in terms of showing what future movies should ideally not do going forward. All of these movies add to Batman’s box office total, though, even if some have far more of an impact than others.

As it stands, The Dark Knight trilogy marked an overall $2.4 billion success (via The Numbers) for the Caped Crusader. Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice and The Batman‘s own worldwide box offices come in closely behind, with $874 and $772 million results respectively.

Of course, spinoffs about Batman’s rogues gallery have also had their own notable success, with Joker ironically being one of the Dark Knight’s greatest hits thanks to its $1 billion box office, though Joker: Folie à Deux made a far lower $207 million. Combined together, these take the overarching Batman movie empire to staggering heights.

The Next Batman Movie Should Take The Franchise Over The $8 Billion Mark

Batman’s Movie Catalog Has Gotten Closer & Closer Still To A Major Milestone

All together – including spinoff movies featuring Batman characters, and movies wherein Batman played a support role like Justice League and The Flash – Batman’s movie box office results come to around $7.9 billion ($7.974 billion, as per The Numbers). Even if The Flash weren’t to be factored in – as Batman plays a lesser role in the Barry Allen-focused release – these results would still be at $7.7 billion.

This number takes into account decades of Batman movie history, and some of DC’s most beloved and most divisive films. It’s also worth noting that Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: The Killing Joke, and Batman and Harley Quinn are included in this mix, though their collected box offices come out to less than $100 million.

As such, it seems the next Batman movie will take the hero’s collected film library over the $8 billion mark, which is a colossal milestone to consider. Interestingly enough, though this might on a first glance appear to mean The Batman 2 will get this luxury, the honor appears set to instead go to a different film.

2026’s Clayface movie will be following in the footsteps of Joker and Catwoman as a film centered around a member of Batman’s rogues gallery, though the film will place Clayface as the central character in its R-rated horror story, versus focusing on the Dark Knight’s perspective. As it stands, it seems Clayface is positioned well to take things to the $8 billion mark.

With all of these movies included, Clayface would only need to make less than $100 million to break Batman into this overarching $8 billion record, since the collective prior box office results come very close to this milestone already altogether. Even if you were to not factor in The Flash, this would still not be impossible for Clayface.

Though a $300 million box office is a taller task, it does seem Clayface could still net this amount depending on how hype builds for the film, and what its cinematic legs are like based on word of mouth after it releases. However, if you’re not factoring the 2023 Flash movie into things, it does seem The Batman 2 may instead be the movie to hit this mark.

Why The $8 Billion Mark Is Such A Big Deal For Batman

An $8 Billion Movie Empire Is No Small Feat

The fact Batman’s collective movie roster comes close to a number as staggering as $8 billion is impressive by itself, but it’s also significant because of a lot more than that. For example, it’s worth noting this number puts Batman’s collected film appearances at a higher box office total than the Avengers movies, which currently sit at $7.6 billion altogether.

With Batman remaining such a cultural touchstone almost a hundred years after his debut, seeing how this long-term empire translates into things like a major box office backlog feels all the more important. Hopefully, Clayface will push this film collection over the $8 billion mark, and into a whole new league for the hero himself.