On This Day: June 15, 1990 "Dick Tracy" was released in 2,332 theaters in the United States.

                                                                  Dick Tracy (1990) - Original Theatrical Trailer
Dick Tracy had its premiere at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida.The film was released in the United States in 2,332 theaters on June 15, 1990, earning $22.54 million in its in opening weekend.This was the third-highest opening weekend of 1990.Dick Tracy eventually grossed $103.74 million in US totals and $59 million elsewhere, coming to a worldwide total of $162.74 million. Dick Tracy was also the ninth-highest grossing film of America in 1990, and number twelve in worldwide totals.Although Disney was impressed by the opening weekend gross,studio chairman
Jeffrey Katenberg  expressed disappointment. He suggested that Dick Tracy had cost about $100 million in total to produce, market and promote. "We made demands on our time, talent and treasury that, upon reflection, may not have been worth it," Katzenberg reported. Disney, in particular, was expecting the film's earnings to match Batman (1989). By 1997, Dick Tracy had made an additional $60.61 million in rental figures.

Critical analysis

Dick Tracy has received mixed reviews from critics. Based on 45 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, 64% of the critics enjoyed Dick Tracy. The consensus reads: "Dick Tracyis stylish, unique, and an undeniable technical triumph, but it ultimately struggles to rise above its two-dimensional artificiality."Roger Ebert believed Warren Beatty created a perfect tone of nostalgia for the film. Ebert mostly praised the matte paintings, art direction and prosthetic makeup design. "Dick Tracy is one of the most original and visionary fantasies I've seen on a screen," he wrote.

Vincent Canby of The New York Times reviewed: "Dick Tracy has just about everything required of an extravaganza: a smashing cast, some great Stephen Sondheim songs, all of the technical wizardry that money can buy, and a screenplay that observes the fine line separating true comedy from lesser camp."Owen Gleiberman from Entertainment Weekly gave a mixed review, but was impressed by Madonna's performance. "Dick Tracy is an honest effort but finally a bit of a folly. It could have used a little less color and a little more flesh and blood," Gleiberman concluded.

In his heavily negative review for The Washington Post, Desson Thomson criticized Disney's hyped marketing campaign, and the film in general. "Dick Tracy is Hollywood's annual celebration of everything that's wrong with Hollywood," he stated. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine cited that Warren Beatty, at 52 years old, was too old for the part. He also found similarities with Batman (1989), in which both films involve "a loner hero, a grotesque villain, a blond bombshell, a marketable pop soundtrack and a no-mercy merchandising campaign," Travers continued. "But Batman possesses something else: a psychological depth that gives the audience a stake in the characters. Tracy sticks to its eye-poppingly brilliant surface. Though the film is a visual knockout, it's emotionally impoverished."

Although Max Allan Collins (then a Dick Tracy comic-strip writer) had conflicts with Disney concerning the novelization, he gave a positive review for the finished film. He praised Beatty for hiring an elaborate design team and his decision to mimic the strip's limited color palette. Collins also enjoyed Beatty's performance, both the prosthetic makeup and characterization of the rogues gallery, as well as the Stephen Sondheim music. However, he believed the filmmakers still sacrificed the storyline in favor of the visual design.

credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Tracy_(1990_film)