In Europe, American films are usually released a bit later than in the US. I don't remember the exact date, but the Batdance single came out well before the film. I think even the album was in the stores before the film was in the cinemas. Still, Batdance was a hit and I think that was mostly because Europe was still on a "Prince high" after the hype surrounding Sign O' the Times/ Lovesexy. His popularity was at the highest in those years. So any lead single of an upcoming Prince album grabbed people's attention.

Cloreen said:

Noodled24 said:

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True, but that's not the way it works.

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Yes, the "Batdance" single was released prior to the film. Just look at the Billboard charts and you can find the dates. Single came out June 8 and its first appearance on US charts was June 17. The film came out June 23. So, yeah, the single was out before the film. But it just was a simple chart entry before the film.

In the USA perhaps. Batman the movie wasn't released in the UK until August. As of the end of June it'd reached #2 on the UK charts

Film came out on June 23, was one of the biggest releases I can recall, all things Batman went through the roof. Then, on August 8th, was when the Prince tune made it to number 1. So, you see, the film and its overwhelming popularity carried the song to number 1. Two weeks after the BATMAN film was out, Prince had the number 1 song in the nation with a Batman song.

The film had a staggered worldwide release.

The song didn't create hype for the film.

Yes it did. That was the whole point of asking one of the biggest stars in the world to write songs for the film. What better advert than a song played 40 times a day on the radio?

Sure, the idea that Prince was doing music for the film was a part of the film's hype, but the song "Batdance" itself was not driving the film. The film drove that song to number 1 two weeks after the film was released.

It was mutually beneficial.