How to watch The Batman online in Australia

At the time of writing, The Batman still had session times at the cinema, which is astonishing considering it’s now available to buy or rent digitally (or even stream via HBO Max). The Batman is absolutely worth experiencing on the big screen, but if you’ve already done that or you’d rather watch it at home, you can do that now, too. Here’s everything you need to know about watching The Batman at home in Australia.

If you haven’t seen it yet, watch a fledgling Batman square off against a terrifyingly reimagined Riddler in The Batman trailer.

The Batman initially hit cinemas in Australia on 3 March 2022, but it was made available to digitally rent or purchase in Australia on 18 April 2022. That doesn’t really help streaming fans, though, and it’s still unclear when The Batman will hit a streaming service in Australia. Thankfully, there’s a way around that.

There are a handful of digital platforms in Australia offering The Batman to digitally rent or buy. If you want the cheapest price, you’ll have to settle for The Batman in SD quality, available to rent for $29.99 on Apple TV, Amazon Video or the Microsoft Store.

We’d advise against that, though, because you can also rent The Batman in superior HD quality from those same three digital platforms for an identical $29.99 price. Alternatively, pay that same $29.99 rental fee to watch The Batman in 4K on Apple iTunes, Amazon Video, Google Play Movies, YouTube or the Microsoft Store.

It’s only $5 more to buy a digital copy of The Batman, and that $34.99 fee is consistent across SD, HD and 4K versions of the flick, with the same platform availability as listed above. Admittedly, those aren’t cheap prices, and given The Batman disc release—$19.98 for DVD, $29.98 for Blu-ray, and $36.98 for 4K Blu-ray—is scheduled for 1 June 2022, you may be hesitant to drop $30 on renting or $35 to own a digital copy.

Thankfully, there is a way to stream The Batman in Australia, but you’ll need to have a virtual private network (VPN) subscription.

With no news on which Australian streaming platform will have The Batman (our bet is on Binge and Foxtel Now), the only way to stream The Batman at the time of writing was to use a VPN to access HBO Max. Because HBO Max is geoblocked to only work with a US IP address, you need to use a VPN to connect to a US server to fool HBO Max into thinking you’re connecting from the US. We’ve been testing NordVPN (again) and PrivadoVPN lately, and both of those VPN services do a good job of accessing HBO Max.

While this will slow down your overall internet connection (which is why we advise using an NBN 50 plan as minimum for VPN streaming), it will allow you to stream The Batman and other content from HBO Max.

If you’re in the market for an NBN 50 plan, check out the daily updating list of popular picks from our comparison engine.

With no news on which Australian streaming platform will have The Batman (our bet is on Binge and Foxtel Now), the only way to stream The Batman at the time of writing was to use a VPN to access HBO Max. Because HBO Max is geoblocked to only work with a US IP address, you need to use a VPN to connect to a US server to fool HBO Max into thinking you’re connecting from the US. We’ve been testing NordVPN (again) and PrivadoVPN lately, and both of those VPN services do a good job of accessing HBO Max.

While this will slow down your overall internet connection (which is why we advise using an NBN 50 plan as minimum for VPN streaming), it will allow you to stream The Batman and other content from HBO Max.

If you’re in the market for an NBN 50 plan, check out the daily updating list of popular picks from our comparison engine.

All you need is a compatible VPN to stream The Batman if you have friends, family or work colleagues in Australia who are willing to share their HBO Max login details with you. HBO Max supports up to three simultaneous streams—not to mention up to six profiles, so there’s no need to mess with the owner’s watch list—so if a US-based person is willing to share the love, you can stream The Batman on any compatible HBO Max device that also lets you use a VPN.

We like to recommend Hulu as a moderate-difficulty alternative for streaming HBO Max content because it’s one of the easiest ways to not only watch Hulu content but anything else via the premium channel add-ons. HBO Max is one of those channel add-ons, and you can add it for US$14.99 a month to Hulu.

To watch Hulu in Australia, you can either use a credit card that’s accepted by the service (we’ve had success with Australian debit cards being accepted in the past) or by using a gift card to pay in bulk. Hulu gift cards are available for purchase from online gift card retailers in US$25, US$50, and US$100 increments. The more you spend, the better the value, but bear in mind you’ll need to factor in US$14.99 plus at least $6.99 per month for a combination of HBO Max and the cheapest ad-supported version of Hulu.

Now stream The Batman and other Hulu and HBO Max content from any Hulu-supported device that supports a VPN or smart DNS service. Note that Hulu also has a 30-day free trial, plus there’s a seven-day free HBO Max trial, so you can also stream The Batman for free via this method, but you will have to provide valid payment details.

Like most streaming services, the content offering on HBO Max gets better with each passing month, and at the time of writing, it’s the only place to stream The Batman. If you don’t want to mess around with Hulu, you can access HBO Max via a backdoor method using an Android device.

The reason you need a backdoor way is HBO Max doesn’t accept Australian payment methods, even when using a VPN, plus HBO gift cards are increasingly trickier to come by these days. We only advise this step for more advanced Android users who are comfortable downloading apps outside of the Google Play Store. If you follow these steps, be sure to check any downloaded files with a virus scanner before installing them.

On an Android device, google ‘HBO Max APK’, then download the HBO Max app file from a reputable outlet. This step is necessary because the HBO Max app is geoblocked on the Google Play Store in Australia.

Once downloaded, install the APK file by tapping on it and accepting the warning. Now use an HBO Max-compatible VPN to connect to a US server. Start up the HBO Max app on your Android device, and select Google Play as a payment method, then pick your Australian payment method. In my tests, it didn’t work with an Australian PayPal account but did with an Australian VISA debit card.

Now that the payment part is out of the way, you’re free to stream HBO Max content on any compatible device—NordVPN and PrivadoVPN both have Android TV apps—that also lets you use a VPN to connect to an ideally fast and streaming-friendly US server.