Jack Nicholson was already a major star before he played the Joker in 1989’s “Batman.” But his unprecedented deal with Warner Bros. for that particular blockbuster netted the actor more than $50 million and made him one of the wealthiest performers in Hollywood — not to mention one of the most influential. After somehow wangling a portion of the profits from both the box office and merchandising revenues from “Batman,” Nicholson set a new precedent for big-name performers moving forward. The actor also basically ensured that “Batman” never actually turned a profit for Warners even though it became a box office smash.
When “Batman” debuted in the summer of 89, it arrived amid a public frenzy dubbed “Bat-mania” by the media. Audiences were clamoring for director Tim Burton’s take on the Caped Crusader, which promised to restore the “Batman” property to its dark roots and deliver a serious take on a character who’d been reduced to somewhat of a joke by the 1960s TV series starring Adam West. That widespread anticipation propelled the $35 million superhero movie to a $40.4 million opening weekend, breaking records previously held by “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” and “Ghostbusters II.” It also marked the highest debut for any Jack Nicholson film ever — a considerable achievement since the actor had been working solidly since his breakthrough role as George Hanson in 1969’s “Easy Rider.”
For a long, long time (more than a decade, in fact), “Batman” remained Nicholson’s best opening weekend. Then, in 2003, none other than Adam Sandler helped the veteran star secure an even more impressive commercial debut.
The underappreciated Jack Nicholson comedy with an impressive opening weekend
As Adam Sandler films go, you don’t hear about 2003’s “Anger Management” as much as you should. Which is a shame because despite its 42% Rotten Tomatoes score, this buddy comedy was a genuinely funny entry in both Sandler and Jack Nicholson’s filmography. Directed by Peter Segal, the movie follows David Buznik (Sandler), a businessman forced to take anger management classes led by Dr. Buddy Rydell (Nicholson). But Rydell’s unconventional methods don’t strike Buznik as all that helpful and the pair struggle to make it through the court-ordered therapy without clashing in frequently hilarious fashion.
Pairing Sandler with Nicholson was an inspired choice all by itself, giving the former a chance to play off a man whose undeniable movie star aura provided the perfect foil to his humble everyman charm. Meanwhile, Nicholson was allowed to embrace his comedic sensibilities in a way that his more restrained comedic projects like “As Good as it Gets” didn’t allow. The actor’s ridiculously exaggerated facial expressions alone are enough to deem “Anger Management” worthy of preservation in the National Film Registry. Nicholson disappeared from Hollywood after 2010, but if all he left us was his delightfully livewire performance as Buddy Rydell, that would be enough.
Of course, the legendary star has given us much more than that, but none of his other work managed to make as much money at the box office as “Anger Management” on its opening weekend. The movie debuted with $42.2 million (via The Numbers), thereby dethroning “Batman” as Nicholson’s highest-ever opening weekend.
Anger Management remains Jack Nicholson’s best opening weekend
“Anger Management” eventually grossed $195 million at the global box office on a budget of $56 million. That made it a commercial success by any standard, even if it wasn’t quite the blockbuster hit that “Batman” and its $411 million global take had been 14 years prior. But “Anger Management” outdid Tim Burton’s superhero movie in terms of opening weekend box office, making $2 million more upon its debut and giving Jack Nicholson a new best opening weekend figure which remains in place to this day. It was also Adam Sandler’s biggest opening weekend at the time, with “Anger Management” surpassing 1999’s “Big Daddy” — which saw Adam Sandler play one of his best roles — and its $41.5 million debut.
Does Nicholson care about any of this? Well, ever since he made $50 million by playing the Joker, financial considerations are probably less important to him. That said, the actor did tell the Los Angeles Times in 1992:
“People said that to me a long time ago — ‘You’re working so hard and you’ve made so much money.’ Well, I’ll tell you when I’ve got it. I’ve never had any financial support, I’ve only borrowed money once in my life and I have a very fearfully conservative idea about when I’m fine. One of my early quotes in this area was I don’t care how many zeros are on the check, if you’re working for the check you’re living at subsistence level. Also, one of the first things you become aware of is that a million bucks won’t see you through a major health crisis.”
While Nicholson wasn’t invested in the success of “Anger Management” in the way he was with “Batman,” then, he clearly saw making money as important in its own way, even after his “Batman” coup, and might therefore have been pleased to see his buddy comedy with Adam Sandler do so well upon its release.
