00:00Movie promotion is Hollywood Studios' battle to see who can take the biggest bite out of the summer box office.
00:06Pocahontas had her premiere party in Central Park, and Casper is haunting Pizza Hut restaurants.
00:11But now comes the biggest promotional push of the season.
00:14Wherever you look, it's Batman Forever.
00:19With talk of recession infiltrating the land, who will save the day for helpless retailers, advertisers, and record companies?
00:27Batman.
00:27Batman.
00:28Batman.
00:28Batman, can you buy it for me?
00:32Measured in t-shirts, record albums, and hamburgers, Batman's superpowers have never been stronger.
00:40The toy reminds them what they saw.
00:43They want to be the same hero.
00:49Merchandisers like Glenn Hendricks say movie products have become a giant industry, and this summer will be a vintage season.
00:55Well, it's probably going to be one of the most successful summers in recent history, and the consumer is, you know, it's a smart one, and they know what's good and what's bad.
01:04And Batman, I think, is huge.
01:06I buy mostly anything Batman.
01:09John Curtis is an unqualified Batman fanatic.
01:13I really get into the stuff.
01:14I mean, Batman watch.
01:16He says movie products sell because of one thing, star power.
01:20They've hit the mark this time.
01:22I mean, Jim Carrey, what can you say?
01:24He is the Riddler.
01:25This will be the Batman to end all Batmans.
01:28Baby, I can bring to a kiss from the rose on the green.
01:34With top musicians like Seal and U2 lending a hand, the Batman soundtrack is already close to number one.
01:41Which is your favorite Batman toy there?
01:43As for the moms and dads we talk to, Batman is still their champion and worth every penny they spend.
01:49Are you happy now?
01:50Yeah.
01:50Because Batman's a superhero and he does good things, it's positive, and so if kids want to play with those kind of toys, it's a good thing.
02:01And how do you pay for all this fat stuff?
02:04Batman checkbook.
02:06Batman checks.
02:11The creation which moves this mountain of merchandising is the movie itself, of course,
02:16and Batman Forever turns out to be a wild ride full of color, crime-fighting, plus a dose of comedy mixed in.
02:23And surrounding the Caped Crusader on screen are a handful of Hollywood heavyweights.
02:33Hot entrance.
02:34Batman is back in Batman Forever.
02:36This time, Val Kilmer is the Caped Crusader, Nicole Kidman is his love interest, Chris O'Donnell is Robin,
02:42and Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones are the bad guys.
02:46So what's the hardest part of being a superhero?
02:50It's that darn costume.
02:52Who's your tailor?
02:53The bath suit, a complete pain in the neck.
02:57Yeah.
02:57And the rest of the body.
02:58And the arm and it to ourselves.
02:59Yeah, right.
03:00Yeah.
03:01Just in it.
03:01Only the lips were spared.
03:03What do you suggest, Alfred?
03:04By sea, or by air?
03:07Why not both?
03:08The only thing that really bothered me about mine was the mask, because it was glued onto my face.
03:14Really?
03:14There were no straps. It would have been much easier if we could just, you know, put a little strap on it.
03:17But, uh, no, they would put my eye makeup on, and then they'd put the glue on, and they'd stick it on.
03:22You called me here for this.
03:23The bath signal is not a beeper.
03:26Well, I wish I could say that my interest in you was purely professional.
03:30I don't get to put on one of those villain suits, unfortunately.
03:35Well, I wanted to wear that Riddler suit.
03:37That's what I would love to wear, but it was made for Jim Carrey.
03:39If I could work this out, would you do it?
03:42No.
03:43Only in the privacy of my own home.
03:44Yeah, right.
03:45Jim Carrey says his costumes were a little tight, but he has no one to blame but himself,
03:57because he helped design the later, more elaborate Riddler outfit.
04:00I said, you know, wouldn't it be kind of neat if the Riddler, you know, because it's the concept of, like, it's like Elvis in Vegas, you know.
04:08I think that at a certain point, when somebody, like, kind of loses themselves, you know,
04:12they start, like, adorning the outside of their body with gold, and I wanted to go Elvis in Vegas.
04:20Tommy Lee Jones plays Harvey Two-Face.
04:22Half his face is made up to look grotesque, but he says the real challenge was the heavy reading that he did for the part.
04:28My research was simply to read all the comic books that I could familiarize myself with all the various images of Harvey
04:35that there have been over the years, and I had a lot of fun preparing for this role,
04:39because the only thing you can do, or the only thing really that I should have done,
04:44is just to read a lot of comic books, and that's what I did.
04:50Of course, the advantages of being a superhero are many, including that Batmobile.
04:55So the car really works?
04:56Oh, yeah, it's got about 140 miles an hour.
04:59How fast did you get up?
05:01160.
05:02You did not.
05:03I did, too.
05:03I went right off the thing, off the bat-odometer.
05:06Well, I'm not going to argue with Batman.
05:09Can I persuade you to take a sandwich with you, sir?
05:14I'll get drive-thru.
05:17Quite a movie, and making this colossal big-screen comic book cost some big Bat-bucks.
05:23The estimates for the production of Batman Forever, they range between $70 and $100 million.
05:28Of course, the filmmakers are betting that they're going to be able to make a good chunk of that cash over the opening weekend.
