Batman

1989 Gross: $251,188,924

The highest grossing movie of the year was no shiny, happy affair. Tim Burton's Batman was as dark as mainstream movies come with Michael Keaton's Dark Knight essentially playing second fiddle to Jack Nicholson's Joker. The camp inflections of the 1960s TV show had been replaced by a far more sinister vision. And Batman was better for it.

Quote: The Joker: Tell me something, my friend. You ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?

TIME's Take: "Anyone can take pleasure in the matching of Keaton and Nicholson, their dueling eyebrows poised like crossed swords."

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