Gotham City is the fictional city where Batman fights crime. Although Gotham is a name used as a nickname for New York City, Gotham City is not NYC. Here are some things we do know about the movie versions of this metropolis. Gotham City is very big! In The Dark Knight, Lucius Fox surprised everyone when he said 30 million people lived there. Shanghai and Mumbai, the biggest cities in the real world have around 13 million inhabitants. so yes Gotham City is Big.
As the directors and set designers for the Batman movies changed so did Gotham City. Matt Singer, a writer for the IFC website, wrote a very good analysis of the changes in Gotham City through the movie franchise.
We've put together these photo galleries so you can see how individual directors have interpreted Gotham City very differently over the years.
Batman (1989)
Directed by Tim Burton
Production Design by Anton Furst
Batman Returns (1992)
Directed by Tim Burton
Production Design by Bo Welch
Batman Forever (1995)
Directed by Joel Schumacher
Production Design by Barbara Ling
Batman & Robin (1997)
Directed by Joel Schumacher
Production Design by Barbara Ling
Batman Begins (2005)
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Production Design by Nathan Crowley
The Dark Knight (2008)
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Production Design by Nathan Crowley