Inside an opulent townhouse in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, Bruce Wayne’s life is for sale. A $5.2 million car sits in the garage. In the living room, a $750,000 sound system from McIntosh blasts a soundtrack. Upstairs on the balcony, a $55,000 bottle of cognac rests on a table, waiting to be poured.
It’s all part of the Wayne Enterprises Experience, a weeklong invite-only interactive luxury shopping adventure that brings the Batman comic to life for ultra-wealthy customers. Actors playing the roles of Lucius Fox and Alfred Pennyworth guide small groups of well-heeled customers around Wayne’s fictional mansion, where each room features shoppable products with lofty price tags. Along the way, they encounter theatrical moments—including a visit from the Riddler, who informs them an imposter is among their ranks.
Curated and produced by Warner Brothers Discovery Global Consumer Products and Relevance International, the Wayne Enterprises Experience offers a glimpse of the elaborate future of retail where the experiential nature of theater mixes with traditional shopping.
“[Warner Bros.] allowed me a lot of creative flexibility,” says Suzanne Rosnowski, CEO and founder of Relevance International, who curated the immersive experience. “I would bring a brand and they would basically be the arbiter of truth—of yes, this is or is not something Bruce Wayne would do.”
Building a collection
For many of the brands involved, the experience presented the opportunity for an unusual partnership. “A lot of the larger brands had a hard time understanding it,” Rosnowski says. “They would say, ‘This is something new. We’d kind of like to see how the first one goes.’ So in a lot of ways this was a beta test. However, the more nimble companies that did not have a lot of red tape were very excited about this as an opportunity.”
Instead of timepieces from Rolex or Hublot, Rosnowski sourced a watch from Kross Studio, a smaller independent Swiss studio ($78,300). Wayne’s suave jackets aren’t supplied from Brioni or Zegna; rather, they’re cut by Milan-based retailer Eleventy ($795). Rosnowski chocks this up to the market-disrupting nature of the experience.
Rosnowski wouldn’t share how many products the experience has sold so far, but she did say some customers have purchased items directly from the QR codes that sit on each object. (Those who were not able to attend the exclusive live event can still shop the collection online.)
“The customer journey really begins here, but I don’t think it ends here,” Rosnowski says. “I don’t think that this level of purchase is an impulse buy. I don’t think it’s . . . ‘Oh, yes, let me just buy this $100,000 item.’”
A JEWELRY HEIST GONE WRONG
Near the end of the experience, guests find themselves nearing Wayne’s infamous Batcave, when the aforementioned imposter reveals herself: It’s Catwoman! Has she successfully stolen that highly valued kryptonite ring? No—Pennyworth kept it safe in his pocket, and now you can buy it for the low price of $800,400. That is, if you’re not more drawn to the experience’s Gotham Blue or Joker Purple rings, which will cost you $11.2 or $9.3 million, respectively.
Still, with the theatrics of the show and the complexity of the design, these high-ticket prices feel almost natural. The customer is simply channeling Bruce Wayne, living that upper-crust life as he would.
“This is the first time we’ve ever had retail mix in with live theater,” Rosnowski says. “The retail industry has really been in need of a reimagination for some time and, based on the response we’re getting from people, I think we’re on to something.”