In the last 60 years there have been a total of 12 movies starring Batman. Of course, with the latest film in the series just released, it’s important to catch up on the character’s cinematic history and become familiar with the adventures of the Caped Crusader. But with so many Batmans, Robins, and villains, it can get dizzying trying to figure out what order to watch all these movies in. To help you out, we’ve put together a few different orderings for you to consider.
For our purposes justice league (2016) is replaced by Zack Snyder’s Justice League (because it is way better and more interesting) and Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and The Lego Batman Movie will also be included, along with any Batman live-action films since they have had wide theatrical releases.
All the latest movies starting with Batman beginscan be streamed HBO Max, along with the animated titles (for fans of animated Batman movies, check out this list of our favorites). For something older, however, you’ll have to go Hello to stream them and Batman (1966) can be rentedbut not streamed with subscriptions.
Release order
That’s pretty easy. It’s the literal order in which these films were released.
- Batman (1966)
- Batman (1989)
- Batman returns
- Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
- Batman forever
- Batman and Robin
- Batman begins
- The dark knight
- The Dark Knight rises
- Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice
- The Lego Batman Movie
- Zack Snyder’s The Justice League
- The Batman
Batman in the multiverse of madness
Batman movies have always had a habit of telling very similar stories with the same characters. That is the purpose of this watch order. You can experience all of the different villains and storylines from the last 60 years of Batman movies to see how characters like the Joker, Catwoman and the Penguin have evolved, as well as the different versions of the Caped Crusader. Curiously, the most compelling continuous line in this clock order might actually be the culminating Robin storyline towards the back half of the list Zack Snyder’s Justice League.
- Batman begins — Origin story
- Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice (stop immediately after Bruce Wayne’s origin story) – origin story
- Batman (1989) — Origin story/Joker introduced
- Batman: Mask of the Phantasm — Early Batman and Joker stuff
- The dark knight – Joker introduced Batman from early to mid-career
- The Batman — Batman, Catwoman and Penguin from early to mid-career
- Batman returns – Mid-career Batman, Catwoman and Penguin
- The Dark Knight rises – Late career Batman, Catwoman, Bane and Robin introduced
- Batman forever – Mid-career Batman, introduced to Robin
- Batman (1966) – Lots of villains, lots of Robin, almost all established
- Batman and Robin – Mid-career Batman, Bane and Robin
- The Lego Batman Movie — The biggest film of the Bat family
- Zack Snyder’s Justice League — Late career Batman, Robin is dead, Bruce is haunted
Batman, but you watch a slightly better movie every time
Honestly, the Batman movies are mostly good. Your level of enjoyment from the extremes of the series may vary, such as: B. filled the camp Batman and Robin or dead serious Zack Snyder’s Justice League, but overall they’re pretty good. That being said, you can see them from worst to best with this order, in our opinion.
- Batman and Robin
- Batman forever
- Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice
- The Dark Knight rises
- Batman (1966)
- Zack Snyder’s Justice League
- The Lego Batman Movie
- The Batman
- Batman (1989)
- Batman returns
- The dark knight
- Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
- Batman begins