He first entered filmmaking as a production and costume designer before gaining writing credits on Car Wash, Sparkle, and The Wiz.

Schumacher received little attention for his first theatrically released films, The Incredible Shrinking Woman and D.C. Cab, but rose to prominence after directing St. Elmo's Fire, The Lost Boys, The Client and Falling Down.

The latter's failure foresaw a steep career decline, although Schumacher continued directing work on smaller-budgeted films, such as Tigerland and Phone Booth.

His parents were Francis Schumacher, a Baptist from Knoxville, Tennessee, who died from pneumonia when Joel was four, and Marian (Kantor), a Swedish Jew.

[1][2][3][4] At the time of his mother's death in 1965, Schumacher stated that his "life seemed like a joke" as he was $50,000 in debt, lost multiple teeth, and only weighed 130 pounds (59 kg).

According to Schumacher the film represented his "personal fascination" with Jesse Jackson, Angela Davis, Tammi Terrell, and Diana Ross.

The film was released to largely negative reviews and did not perform as well at the box-office as any of its predecessors, causing a planned sequel, Batman Unchained, to be cancelled.

[34][29][30][31] It was alleged that Schumacher, a gay man, had added homoerotic elements to the film with the most prominent being the rubber nipples, codpieces, and close-up camera shots of Batman and Robin's buttocks.

[34][36] Following Batman & Robin, Schumacher directed 8mm, Flawless, Tigerland, Bad Company, Phone Booth, Veronica Guerin, The Phantom of the Opera, The Number 23, Blood Creek, Twelve, and Trespass.

[29][30][31] In August 2008, Schumacher directed the music video for American rock band Scars on Broadway, for their single "World Long Gone".

[30] Schumacher was openly gay and described himself as "extremely promiscuous", saying in a 2019 interview that he became sexually active at age eleven, estimating that he had sex with between 10,000 and 20,000 men over the course of his life.