Madonna's Pay For Co-Starring In Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy Movie Was Unbelievably Low

Warren Beatty's 1990 comics adaptation "Dick Tracy" was very clearly, even at the time, a direct lift-off of Tim Burton's "Batman," which had been released the previous year. Both films were set in outsized, fantastical cities that were so stylized as to be unreal and took place in a vague nether-year that was locked somewhere around the late 1930s. They also centered on comic heroes that were invented in the '30s and had access to super-advanced crime-fighting equipment, giving them an edge over the criminal underground. Likewise, the law-breakers in "Batman" and "Dick Tracy" tend to be cartoonish in terms of both their tempers and distinct facial differences, and Danny Elfman scored both movies.

Moreover, just as "Batman" had Prince on its soundtrack, Madonna sung the songs for "Dick Tracy" — which were penned by no one less than Stephen Sondheim — and put out a tie-in album (titled "I'm Breathless") featuring three of Sondheim's songs, as well as several original tunes she had co-written. On top of all that, Madonna co-starred in the film as Breathless Mahoney, a sultry lounge singer who's attracted to Dick Tracy (Beatty) for his gruff morals and is willing to cast aside the crooks in her life for him. Tracy, meanwhile, does his best to rebuff her advances, as he only has eyes for the kind Tess Trueheart (Glenne Headly).

Indeed, as Newsweek revealed in 1990, Madonna wanted the role of Breathless so badly that she was willing to underbid. It seems that she worked for scale, which averaged out to about $1,440 a week. Beatty, for perspective, received $9 million up front and 10% of the film's profits.

It's worth recalling that Madonna and Warren Beatty were a real-life item at the time, so Madonna would have had insider knowledge on the film's production. And if "Dick Tracy" was to feature a sultry nightclub singer that's trying to get into its namesake's pants, Madonna wanted to be the one to play her. Beatty wouldn't marry his current wife, Annette Bening, until 1992. 

Madonna was very frank in the Newsweek article about how she happily and without shame prodded her boyfriend for the role of Breathless. She was also up front about how "Dick Tracy" could help her then-not-very-prestigious film career. Madonna was an explosively in-demand pop star, of course, but her movies had been, up to that point, kind of lackluster. As she put it:

"I called up Warren and told him I really wanted it. [...] I saw the A list and I was on the Z list. I felt like a jerk. [...] Disney didn't come to me and ask me to help market the movie. Let's just say I'm killing 12 birds with one stone. It's a two-way street. I'm not going to overlook the fact that it's a great opportunity for me, too. Most people don't associate me with movies. But I know I have a much bigger following than Warren does, and a lot of my audience isn't even aware of who he is." 

By 1990, Madonna had appeared in a handful of movies. However, Susan Seidelman's "Desperately Seeking Susan" (a film that Bruce Willis missed out on) was the only real hit she had under her belt. "Dick Tracy," meanwhile, seemed to be a guaranteed blockbuster. In this case, Madonna's star power actually helped the movie. 

"Dick Tracy" was, notably, a marketing bonanza for Disney. If "Batman" could blow the doors off the box office in 1989, earning millions for Warner Bros., then surely the Mouse House could compete. As such, the studio gave Warren Beatty the go-ahead to make "Dick Tracy" so long as he kept its budget to $25 million (via Newsweek). And while the movie would ultimately go on to cost a reported $47 million, even that was meant to be leavened by Beatty's involvement in a Disney-backed prestige drama titled "The Doctor." Beatty ended up dropping out of that film, though, and the studio cast William Hurt to take his place.

In the end, "Dick Tracy" earned $162.7 million at the box office, which was not bad but nowhere near what "Batman" had brought in. Beatty's movie didn't have the same cultural clout as Tim Burton's comic book flick, either, so its merchandise sales similarly paled in comparison. Jeffrey Katzenberg, who was the head of Disney at the time, subsequently wrote a long memo arguing that "Dick Tracy" was a mistake and that Disney ought to stay away from filmmakers like Beatty. Naturally, Beatty was peeved by this.

That being said, Disney may have fudged the truth a little bit, given the success of Madonna's "I'm Breathless" tie-in album. The record was released by Warner Bros., but surely Disney got some kind of licensing deal out of that. Either way, "I'm Breathless" was certified double platinum, which means it sold millions of copies. That's more impressive than "Dick Tracy" itself.