ABSTRACT
Batman took the United States by storm in the spring and summer of 1989. Tee shirts, posters, keychains, jewelry, buttons, books, watches, magazines, trading cards, audiotaped books, videogames, records, cups, and numerous other items flooded malls across the United States with images of Batman, his new logo, and his old enemy the Joker. The film per se becomes only one component in a product line that extends beyond the theater, even beyond our contact with mass media, to penetrate the markets for toys, bedding, trinkets, cups and the other minutiae comprising one's everyday life inside a commoditized, consumerized culture. Warner Communications Inc. traces its history to the founding of Warner Brothers Studio in 1918. The four founding brothers have been the object of considerable scholarship as has their studio and its products, which include sound film, social realist films, TV Westerns, and cartoons.
