The Most Underrated Batman Movie Of All Time Just Helped Make 2026’s Biggest Film

Published Oct 4, 2026, 8:00 AM EDT

Zoë Miskelly is an editor and second in command for Screen Rant's Movies team, having covered the entertainment industry for almost 10 years now. Zoë's love of superheroes and all things Marvel & DC started out in childhood, and has blossomed into a career getting to talk about some of the biggest and best movies and shows of all time, having previously focused on comics while working at WhatCulture.

The most painfully underrated Batman movie of all time played a role in helping 2026's biggest hit thus far resonate quite so well with audiences, adding further reasons for people to give the 2017 DC film a watch. Batman's movie catalog is a rich and extensive one, with the hero having gone through just about every genre throughout the course of his filmography to date.

Of course, this also means some films have sadly gone more by the wayside compared to others, and are relatively unheard of for those who haven't actively searched for the more niche corners of the Dark Knight's on-screen history. That said, this means the delight of watching a film like the often forgotten-about fourth The Dark Knight film, Batman: Gotham Knight, or catching something like the Lovecraftian Elseworlds story of Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham is all the more substantial, since it feels like coming across a rare artifact or hidden treasure.

However, these films often still play crucial roles in the wider Batman ecosystem and superhero film landscape, even if they're less well known to broader audiences. Perhaps the best example of this has come up very recently, as the Batman film that is arguably the hero's most underrated has been explicitly mentioned as a source of inspiration 2026's biggest movie hit drew from when it came to executing its own story.

How The Lego Batman Movie Helped Make 2026's Current Biggest Box Office Hit

Interestingly enough, despite being very much a DC release, The Lego Batman Movie was mentioned by Tom Holland as being a key source of inspiration for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and for the actor's perspective on Peter Parker's story in this chapter of the MCU within the film.

During an interview with Accion Cine Series, Holland stated that:

"I think that's the scale of the movie, you know, the juxtaposition between the life people think Spider-Man is living, and the life that Peter Parker is actually living.

Something that I always really loved from a superhero movie is The Lego Batman Movie, when they talk about like, 'He must be going home and having parties with all of his friends and dating supermodels' and all this sort of stuff, and then it cuts to him, like, in his house alone.

And I do remember sending that to Destin being like 'This is a great little thing for us. We should do something like this.' And I think that just creates a lot of layers, and people are going to yearn for Peter Parker to make some life changes so that he can find happiness and peace and love."

It's easy to see what the actor meant when looking at the film's story. Peter's struggles with his non-existent personal life at the start of the movie do bear a striking resemblance to the way The Lego Batman Movie also shows how the Dark Knight has made his superhero role the only thing he really has to define his life, with both changing their ways and growing over the course of the film.

The engaging nature of Spider-Man's personal arc in Spider-Man: Brand New Day has played a key role in the movie's success, and its current status at the top of 2026's box office roster thanks to its $2.4 billion worldwide results. As such, it's clear any inspiration taken from The Lego Batman Movie certainly paid off for the newer release in a major way, to say the least.

The Lego Batman Movie's Role In Making 2026's Biggest Hit Work Underlines Just How Underrated It Is

The Lego Batman Movie is often disregarded as a kids movie, and downplayed as a comedy film that doesn't take the Caped Crusader as seriously as its live-action peers.

Though the animated movie is certainly a more light-hearted romp than many of the Dark Knight's other films - especially those in the live-action realm - this allows its story to explore the hero in a manner that lets it approach his personal problems in some ways more directly.

The Lego Batman Movie showing how wrong others are about Batman's personal life, for example, is used for comedy, but also displays a core issue with the way the hero has been operating that becomes a source of jokes while also being effective characterization, and sets up for Batman's later character development.

Similarly, while a lot of Batman movies have to focus more on the undeniable badass side to the Dark Knight, the more playful leanings of The Lego Batman Movie mean it isn't as obliged to, which lets an often more human and fallible side of the beloved hero take center stage instead, allowing it to be a unique exploration of Batman and the superhero genre more broadly speaking - which goes some way to explain why and how it helped with Spider-Man: Brand New Day years down the line.