Box office Batman & Robin was released on June 20, 1997, in the United States and Canada, grossing $42,872,605 in its opening weekend. and finished outside of
the top ten films of 1997. With a production budget of $125–160 million, Schumacher criticized "prejudicial prerelease buzz" online and false news reports as a cause for the film's poor commercial performance. Warner Bros. acknowledged
Batman & Robins shortcomings in the domestic market but pointed out its success in other markets.
Critical response Audiences polled by
CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale. Jay Boyar of
Orlando Sentinel believed
Batman & Robin to be the least distinctive chapter in the series, calling it a "bat-smorgasbord of action, camp, pathos, spectacle and whatever" and blaming its blandness on the studio's increased involvement in its production. In his "thumbs down" review,
Roger Ebert of the
Chicago Sun-Times found the film to be "wonderful to look at" although it had "nothing authentic at its core", criticizing its toyetic approach. Writing for the
Chicago Tribune,
Gene Siskel, who gave positive reviews to the previous
Batman films, also gave
Batman & Robin a "thumbs down" rating, calling it a "sniggering, exhausting, overproduced extravaganza". While commending the film's visuals,
Kenneth Turan of the
Los Angeles Times called the film "indifferently acted" and "far too slick for even a toehold's worth of connection", believing that it "killed" the
Batman film series.
Desson Howe of
The Washington Post disapproved of Schumacher's direction and Akiva Goldsman's script, calling it an "emptily flashy, meandering fashion show of a summer flick" and also believing that it should mark the end to the series.
Andrew Johnston, writing in
Time Out, remarked, "It's hard to tell who
B&R is intended for. Anyone who knows the character from the comics or the superb
animated show on
Fox will be alienated. And though Schumacher treats the
Adam West version as gospel, that show's campy humor is completely incompatible with these production values."
James Berardinelli questioned the "random amount of rubber nipples and camera angle close-ups of the Dynamic Duo's butts and Bat-crotches". In a negative review, Peter Rainer of
Dallas Observer explained that "the fourth installment in the
Batman franchise is one long head-splitting exercise in clueless cacophony that makes you feel as though you're being held hostage in some haywire
Planet Hollywood while sonic booms pummel your auditory canal". In his review for the
San Francisco Chronicle,
Mick LaSalle said that the film failed to "convincingly inhabit the grandeur of its art direction and special effects", criticizing Clooney as "the big zero of the film", who "should go down in history as the
George Lazenby of the series". While deeming Clooney "the most ideal Batman to date" in a physical sense,
Todd McCarthy of
Variety found the character uninteresting and Clooney "unable to compensate onscreen for the lack of dimension on paper". Conversely, he described Thurman and Schwarzenegger's performances as the villainous duo as the "highlights of the film", pointing out Thurman's "comic wit conspicuously lacking elsewhere in the picture". Writing for
Star Tribune, Jeff Strickler criticized its "almost embarrassingly mundane" dialogue and called Schwarzenegger "wasted" in the role of Mr. Freeze and his character "drably written".
Janet Maslin of
The New York Times gave a more positive review and praised Thurman's performance as "perfect", comparing it to
Mae West's "[mix of] true femininity with the winking womanliness of a drag queen", but criticizing Silverstone and Clooney's performances. Steven Rea of
The Philadelphia Inquirer found Thurman at times "amusing" and similarly described her performance as "Mae West with moss".
Legacy Batman & Robin is considered to be one of the worst superhero films In an interview with
Vice 20 years after its release, Schumacher apologized for the film while taking full responsibility for its poor reputation, stating, "I want to apologize to every fan that was disappointed because I think I owe them that. A lot of it was my choice. No one is responsible for my mistakes but me." He added, "I was scum. It was like I had murdered a baby", recounting his initial reaction to the overwhelmingly negative public response. Goldsman also apologized, saying, "we didn't mean for it to be bad. I swear, nobody was like, 'This will be bad.'" and elaborating that the film was initially intended to be darker in tone. ing as the film's depiction of Mr. Freeze. Retrospectively, Clooney has spoken critically of and apologized for his involvement in the film, saying in 2005, "I think we might have killed the franchise", and calling it "a waste of money". Furthermore, when asked during a 2015 interview on
The Graham Norton Show about whether he had ever had to apologize for
Batman & Robin, Clooney responded, "I always apologize for
Batman & Robin". In late 2020, he told
Howard Stern that it was "physically" painful to watch his work in the role: "The truth of the matter is, I was bad in it. Akiva Goldsman — who's won the Oscar for writing since then — wrote the screenplay. And it's a terrible screenplay, he'll tell you. I'm terrible at 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." In 2021, Clooney said he refuses to let his wife
Amal watch the film. In 2023, Clooney was asked about what his biggest regret, he responded "I regret doing fucking Batman". Conversely, in an interview with
Empire in 2012, Schwarzenegger stated that, despite its poor reception, he did not regret making the film, commenting about his role as Mr. Freeze and his involvement with the studio, "I felt that the character was interesting and two movies before that one Joel Schumacher was at his height. So the decision-making process was not off. At the same time, I was doing
Eraser (1996) over there and Warner Bros. begged me to do the movie." Similarly, 25 years after its theatrical release, Thurman described her work on the film as a "fantastic experience". In 2009,
Marvel Studios president
Kevin Feige said that
Batman & Robin may be the most important comic book film ever made in that it was "so bad that it demanded a new way of doing things" and created the opportunity to make
X-Men (2000) and
Spider-Man (2002) in a way that respected the source material to a higher degree. The nipples seen on the character's costumes, first appearing in
Batman Forever and accentuated for
Batman & Robin at Schumacher's request, remain among the most defining aspects of the film. Recounting his involvement with the film, costume designer Jose Fernandez stated that he was opposed to "sharpening" the nipples, calling them "ridiculous". In 2022,
Tim Burton commented about Warner Bros.' decision to replace him as director with Schumacher after
Batman Returns, "You complain about me, I'm too weird, I'm too dark, and then you put nipples on the costume? Go fuck yourself." Clooney's screen-worn suit was put up for auction by
Heritage Auctions in 2022 with a starting bid of $40,000. A previous owner had estimated it to be worth $100,000 in 2006 when Clooney was considered to be at the height of his career. The suit sold for $57,500. In the 2009 film
Watchmen, director
Zack Snyder and comic book artist
Dave Gibbons chose to parody the molded muscle and nipple Batsuit design from
Batman & Robin for the
Ozymandias costume. The film is referenced in the
Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "Legends of the Dark Mite!", when
Bat-Mite briefly uses his powers to transform Batman's costume into the same suit shown in Schumacher's
Batman films, before declaring it "too icky". Twenty-six years after the release of
Batman & Robin, Clooney made a
cameo appearance as Bruce Wayne in the 2023
DC Extended Universe superhero film
The Flash. Clooney was asked to reprise the role when the film was already in post-production, agreeing to join after seeing a cut of the film; filming took place in secret six months before release and lasted half a day.
Accolades ==Canceled sequel==