Most of us love Batman Begins, it was critically acclaimed and reinvigorated the Batman cinematic franchise after the nightmare that was Joel Schumacher's Batman and Robin. Yet it took only 374 million dollars, which even back in 2005 was hardly spectacular. 10 years earlier, Batman forever was only 38 million down on that total and the 1989 Batman film took over 400 million. The spiderman films each took more 700 million. I can't remember why the takings were so modest, were people just disillusioned with batman films after the Schumacher ones?

It was the first Batman film after Batman & Robin, so there was understandably some skepticism surrounding it. Nolan and Bale also weren't as popular and acclaimed as they are now.

Batman Begins is personally my favorite.

B&R was still fresh in everyone's mind, Nolan and Bale weren't well known, marketing was okay etc.

Batman and Robin.

Movie that was going against comic book movie tradition.

Nolan name was still small indy kinda guy name.

It was darker that other superhero movies of the time.

People didnt knew who Christian Bale was.

Publicity.

Budget.

Liam Neeson was a well known name but it wasnt the Super Neeson.

What they said.

You know how all the MCU movies after The Avengers experienced what people call "The Avengers bump" yeah well Batman & Robin had a similar effect on Batman Begins. Except it was obviously a negative one. It took Batman Begins being good and doing on DVD to turn the Batman movie franchise around.

Actually good points....BO takings took a jump after Iron Man and the Avengers. The popular X Men films took no more than 450 million for the Last Stand Film and Hulk was less than 300 million, so I guess Batman Begins took what was average takings for the mid 2000s. Our expectations have changed dramatically since then, such that Amazing Spiderman 2 is considered a bit of a flop at 714 million takings!!

Budget reasons, movies have to do the double in box office so they get even.

If a movie cost 150 it needs to made 300, if it cost 200 it needs to make 400.

Movies cost more, so they need to make more money, remember that MOS would had being a flop if it wasnt for The Wall Mart deal that pay half of the budget.

Man of Steel Budget was over 350.

That is one of the reason Micheal Bay is the king, he always gets the budget back and wins money, for some terrible reason.

U got to remember, in 2005 spiderman was head and shoulders the most popular superhero at that point. His movies were like king of the box office back in the early 2000s

A lot of the reasons already said here. Domestically, Batman Begins did well for the time much like the X-men films. It wasn't redefining the box office like Spider-man was, but the numbers were solid and above the other comic book adaptations. Movies like FF (1 &2), Ghost Rider, Punisher, Daredevil ranged from 33-150 mil, whereas Batman topped 200.

Foreign Box office was pretty pathetic compared to today's numbers but that's how it was 5-10 years ago; film companies were still realizing there was more money internationally for action films than domestically.

Here's the top 5 cbm's around that time (excluded 300)

Spider-Man 2 #2 0f 2004 dom

Domestic: $373,585,825

Foreign: $410,180,516

Worldwide: $783,766,341

X-Men: The Last Stand #4 of 2006 dom

Domestic: $234,362,462

Foreign: $224,997,093

Worldwide: $459,359,555

Batman Begins #8 of 2005 dom

Domestic: $206,852,432

Foreign: $167,366,241

Worldwide: $374,218,673

Superman Returns #6 of 2006 dom

Domestic: $200,081,192

Foreign: $191,000,000

Worldwide: $391,081,192

Fantastic Four # 13 of 2005 dom

Domestic: $154,696,080

Foreign: $175,883,639

Worldwide: $330,579,719

I don't think it was advertised and as anticipated as other super-hero films. Look when there's a new Avenger's film or Iron Man film the web blows up and people go crazy. I think DC did not expect Batman Begins to do as well as it did. Once The Dark Knight was announced though the public went nuts, it was such a anticipated film because the first film not to mention The Joker being cast. When I found out Batman had a new film coming out even being a hardcore Batman fan I wasn't to excited because of the history with the previous two films but once I saw it my excitement was back and I knew there were some good Batman films finally to come. I think there are many reasons Batman Begins was not as big as it should have been but it still made money and gave fans a great new origin story while sticking to the Batman we all grew to love.