MOVIE VIDEOGRAPHY
This page covers all cinematic movies subsequently released on video.
Please note any and all subsequent reissues after 1992, including DVDs, are not included on this webpage.
Contents:
Please note any and all subsequent reissues after 1992, including DVDs, are not included on this webpage.
Contents:
- Filmography table of releases during the 'decade'
- Link to complete listings of all films released
- Overview
- Videography
Filmography (1982-1992)
|
DATE
1985 1985 1985 1986 1987 1989 1990 1991 1991 1992 1993 |
TITLE
Vision Quest Desperately Seeking Susan A Certain Sacrifice (1978) Shanghai Surprise Who's That Girl Bloodhounds of Broadway Dick Tracy In Bed With Madonna ('Truth or Dare') Shadows and Fog A League of Their Own Body of Evidence |
CREDIT / ROLE
Actress / Club singer (cameo) Actress / Susan Actress / Bruna Actress / Gloria Tatlock Actress / Nikki Finn Actress / Hortense Hathaway Actress / Breathless Mahoney Herself / executive producer Actress / Marie Actress / Mae Mordabito Actress / Rebecca Carlson |
DIRECTOR
Harold Becker Susan Seidelman Stephen Jon Lewicki Jim Goddard James Foley Howard Brookner Warren Beatty Alek Keshishian Woody Allen Penny Marshall Uli Edel |
BOX OFFICE US$
$12,993,175 $27,398,584 N/A (video only) $2,315,683 $7,305,209 $43,671 $103,738,726 $15,012,935 $2,735,731 $107,533,928 $13,273,595 |
For all subsequent films click on: What Madonna Did Next...
Overview
Madonna began her film career in 1979 in the low budget feature ‘A Certain Sacrifice’. Resurfacing in 1985 (but not released until 1986 in the UK) to cash-in on her world-wide fame, Madonna tried unsuccessfully to prevent its release.
A further motion picture featuring a pre-fame Madonna was ‘Vision Quest’ shot in 1984 and given a release (US cinemas only) in 1985. Madonna made a small cameo appearance as a club singer performing ‘Crazy for You’.
Also in 1984 the still unknown Madonna was chosen as the co-star and title role in ‘Desperately Seeking Susan’. Released in 1985, coinciding with Madonna’s rise to world-wide fame, the film, a story of a bored housewife who is fascinated with a woman she only knows by reading messages in the personals section of a New York City tabloid, was a world-wide commercial success and grossed $27 million in the United States alone.
For her next movie project, Madonna sought to build on her acting career by playing a character opposite to her own personality in a bid to allay the critics who had claimed her critical success in Desperately Seeking Susan was largely due to playing herself. Consequently she chose the adventure/romantic drama Shanghai Surprise (1986) in which she played a naïve missionary with then-husband Sean Penn. The film, and Madonna’s performance in particular, garnered withering reviews. The film was a box office disaster grossing only $2,315,683.
Stung by the criticism, and her first commercial failure, Madonna returned to more familiar territory for her next movie, Who's That Girl (1987) in which she played another street wise character. The movie was only given the green light by Warner’s if Madonna agreed to appear in a musical capacity by providing her own songs, on which she would perform, for the soundtrack – this was something she had refused to do for Shanghai Surprise wanting to focus purely on acting. Billed as a ‘screwball comedy’ the film, despite the presence of Madonna’s music, also failed to attract commercial or critical success. Critics pointed in particular to the rather bizarre voice affectation that Madonna adopted throughout.
After two consecutive big budget commercial failures in which she had played the leading role, Madonna had no choice but to step back from the acclaimed acting career she craved. What would now follow (until Evita in 1997) would be a succession of supporting roles.
Taking a break from both the big screen and the music industry Madonna had a relatively quiet year in 1988 focussing instead on making her stage debut in David Mahmet’s Speed The Plow in New York. While Madonna could not guarantee commercial success at the cinema box-office she certainly could in the theatre box-office where fans and critics alike fought over the limited tickets for the chance to see Madonna live. Not surprisingly the play was a sell-out with Madonna garnering mixed reviews.
Madonna returned to the big screen in 1989, in a supporting role as part of an ensemble cast (meaning that each performer relates to and enriches the others) in the movie ‘Bloodhounds of Broadway’. She appeared alongside Jennifer Grey, currently one of the most famous actresses after appearing in ‘Dirty Dancing’, one of the highest grossing movies of all time. Despite their combined presence the film was not commercially successful and was not given a cinema release in the UK.
Incidentally, Madonna was the first choice for the role of "Susie Diamond" in The Fabulous Baker Boys, but famously rejected the part claiming it was "too mushy". This proved to be an unwise decision because the film turned out to be a box-office success bringing Michelle Pfeiffer to fame.
In 1990, Madonna finally received good reviews for her turn as Breathless Mahoney in Dick Tracy, directed by Warren Beatty and based on Chester Gould's comic strip. The film was a big commercial success being, at that time, one of the few movies to break the hundred-million dollar mark, grossing $103,738,726.
Beatty would later surface again in the 1991 documentary Madonna: Truth or Dare (released in the UK as ‘In Bed With Madonna’) which showed behind the scenes of the 1990 Blond Ambition World Tour (see Music Videography section).
In 1992, Madonna appeared in two further movies. The first was a cameo appearance as a trapeze artist in Woody Allen's ‘Shadows and Fog’. The black and white film was an homage to German Expressionist cinema, backed by the music of Kurt Weill. The second was in Penny Marshall's ‘A League of Their Own’ opposite Tom Hanks, Geena Davis and Rosie O'Donnell. The film centred on a women's baseball team during World War II and earned Madonna good reviews. It was a major commercial success worldwide, particularly and not surprisingly in North America, and is the most commercially successful movie within this ‘Decade’ period grossing $107,533,928.
The most commercially successful movie Madonna is associated with is the James Bond film ‘Die Another Day’ (2003) in which she had a cameo appearance as a fencing instructor. She also provided the theme song.
The least successful commercial movie (not counting her project 'Filth & Wisdom' which was only on a limited release) is 'Dangerous Eyes' (1993) which, according to Wikipedia's filmography grossed only $23,671 [?] at the US box office. In 2007, the director, Abel Ferrara recalled:
"It was just another one of our films that never came out. But on that one, the audience didn't really like the film. Madonna killed it. The first impression people get on a movie is the one that never gets out of their mind. So after Madonna got so trashed for doing Body of Evidence, she thought she was going to beat the critics to the punch and badmouth the film. And she actually got good reviews. She never got a good review from the Voice or The New York Times in her life, but she got good reviews for this movie, which she came out and trashed. I'll never forgive her for it."
For a complete list of all movies see ‘What Madonna Did Next’.
For collectors, commercially released home videos provide rather slim pickings due to being mass released. Unlike music, it was rare for videos to be issued in any form of limited editions. The exception to this is 'In Bed With Madonna' which was released with a plethora of limited promotional tie-ins - see the 'In Bed With Madonna' page for more information. The real challenge therefore lies in tracking down the various press kits that were issued to promote the movies and these are detailed below.
Promotional Items - Motion Pictures
For UK collectors, promotional items related to cinema releases are thin on the ground. For that reason, this website has bent the inclusion rules in order to focus on the very impressive range of US press packs, most of which are issued in customised glossy folders complete with production notes, biographies and a selection of promotional b/w photos.
Valuing these press kits can be challenging as they come with varying numbers of photos which, over the course of time, can become separated from the original kit. At the same time additional promotional photos are produced which may never have been intended for inclusion in the original pack. Furthermore, some packs were issued with different sets of promo photos albeit that each contained certain core photos. This happened with the UK promo packs for 'Desperately Seeking Susan', which were each issued with a set of eight photos, and explains why the core photos are very common while others are extremely scarce.
For the collector, it is difficult to know whether or not a press pack has a 'complete' set of photos. Some kits come with only a small number of photos that have generally remained intact within the press pack (Bloodhounds / Shadows and Fog) while others come with photos that are helpfully numbered sequentially (Shanghai Surprise / League Of Their Own / Body of Evidence) which makes it easy to spot and hunt down any that are missing. However, it is often the case that press kits do not come with a complete set of photos but just a selection. Having said that, one kit that definitely did come with the full set is 'Vision Quest' which includes a document stating exactly which photos are included - no other press kit provides likewise. Unfortunately, the 'Vision Quest' press kit also has the distinction of being the hardest to track down, as the movie was a limited distribution resulting in only a small number of kits issued.
By far the most challenging press kits to 'complete' are those for 'Desperately Seeking Susan' and 'Who's That Girl' which come with a large number of photos with differing credits - some of the images are issued with no fewer that three different credits.
This brings us to the tricky task of valuations. A nominal value of £10 has been given to each press pack which is increased incrementally by a further £5-£10 for each promotional photo contained within. The packs for the main big-budget movies also originally came with a selection of promotional slides and these have also been nominally valued at £5 each. While this is what each item tends to cost to source individually (not to mention postage costs) it resulted in excessively high valuations - valuations of £200+ are not realistic! Therefore the valuations shown below have been capped at £100.
A further motion picture featuring a pre-fame Madonna was ‘Vision Quest’ shot in 1984 and given a release (US cinemas only) in 1985. Madonna made a small cameo appearance as a club singer performing ‘Crazy for You’.
Also in 1984 the still unknown Madonna was chosen as the co-star and title role in ‘Desperately Seeking Susan’. Released in 1985, coinciding with Madonna’s rise to world-wide fame, the film, a story of a bored housewife who is fascinated with a woman she only knows by reading messages in the personals section of a New York City tabloid, was a world-wide commercial success and grossed $27 million in the United States alone.
For her next movie project, Madonna sought to build on her acting career by playing a character opposite to her own personality in a bid to allay the critics who had claimed her critical success in Desperately Seeking Susan was largely due to playing herself. Consequently she chose the adventure/romantic drama Shanghai Surprise (1986) in which she played a naïve missionary with then-husband Sean Penn. The film, and Madonna’s performance in particular, garnered withering reviews. The film was a box office disaster grossing only $2,315,683.
Stung by the criticism, and her first commercial failure, Madonna returned to more familiar territory for her next movie, Who's That Girl (1987) in which she played another street wise character. The movie was only given the green light by Warner’s if Madonna agreed to appear in a musical capacity by providing her own songs, on which she would perform, for the soundtrack – this was something she had refused to do for Shanghai Surprise wanting to focus purely on acting. Billed as a ‘screwball comedy’ the film, despite the presence of Madonna’s music, also failed to attract commercial or critical success. Critics pointed in particular to the rather bizarre voice affectation that Madonna adopted throughout.
After two consecutive big budget commercial failures in which she had played the leading role, Madonna had no choice but to step back from the acclaimed acting career she craved. What would now follow (until Evita in 1997) would be a succession of supporting roles.
Taking a break from both the big screen and the music industry Madonna had a relatively quiet year in 1988 focussing instead on making her stage debut in David Mahmet’s Speed The Plow in New York. While Madonna could not guarantee commercial success at the cinema box-office she certainly could in the theatre box-office where fans and critics alike fought over the limited tickets for the chance to see Madonna live. Not surprisingly the play was a sell-out with Madonna garnering mixed reviews.
Madonna returned to the big screen in 1989, in a supporting role as part of an ensemble cast (meaning that each performer relates to and enriches the others) in the movie ‘Bloodhounds of Broadway’. She appeared alongside Jennifer Grey, currently one of the most famous actresses after appearing in ‘Dirty Dancing’, one of the highest grossing movies of all time. Despite their combined presence the film was not commercially successful and was not given a cinema release in the UK.
Incidentally, Madonna was the first choice for the role of "Susie Diamond" in The Fabulous Baker Boys, but famously rejected the part claiming it was "too mushy". This proved to be an unwise decision because the film turned out to be a box-office success bringing Michelle Pfeiffer to fame.
In 1990, Madonna finally received good reviews for her turn as Breathless Mahoney in Dick Tracy, directed by Warren Beatty and based on Chester Gould's comic strip. The film was a big commercial success being, at that time, one of the few movies to break the hundred-million dollar mark, grossing $103,738,726.
Beatty would later surface again in the 1991 documentary Madonna: Truth or Dare (released in the UK as ‘In Bed With Madonna’) which showed behind the scenes of the 1990 Blond Ambition World Tour (see Music Videography section).
In 1992, Madonna appeared in two further movies. The first was a cameo appearance as a trapeze artist in Woody Allen's ‘Shadows and Fog’. The black and white film was an homage to German Expressionist cinema, backed by the music of Kurt Weill. The second was in Penny Marshall's ‘A League of Their Own’ opposite Tom Hanks, Geena Davis and Rosie O'Donnell. The film centred on a women's baseball team during World War II and earned Madonna good reviews. It was a major commercial success worldwide, particularly and not surprisingly in North America, and is the most commercially successful movie within this ‘Decade’ period grossing $107,533,928.
The most commercially successful movie Madonna is associated with is the James Bond film ‘Die Another Day’ (2003) in which she had a cameo appearance as a fencing instructor. She also provided the theme song.
The least successful commercial movie (not counting her project 'Filth & Wisdom' which was only on a limited release) is 'Dangerous Eyes' (1993) which, according to Wikipedia's filmography grossed only $23,671 [?] at the US box office. In 2007, the director, Abel Ferrara recalled:
"It was just another one of our films that never came out. But on that one, the audience didn't really like the film. Madonna killed it. The first impression people get on a movie is the one that never gets out of their mind. So after Madonna got so trashed for doing Body of Evidence, she thought she was going to beat the critics to the punch and badmouth the film. And she actually got good reviews. She never got a good review from the Voice or The New York Times in her life, but she got good reviews for this movie, which she came out and trashed. I'll never forgive her for it."
For a complete list of all movies see ‘What Madonna Did Next’.
For collectors, commercially released home videos provide rather slim pickings due to being mass released. Unlike music, it was rare for videos to be issued in any form of limited editions. The exception to this is 'In Bed With Madonna' which was released with a plethora of limited promotional tie-ins - see the 'In Bed With Madonna' page for more information. The real challenge therefore lies in tracking down the various press kits that were issued to promote the movies and these are detailed below.
Promotional Items - Motion Pictures
For UK collectors, promotional items related to cinema releases are thin on the ground. For that reason, this website has bent the inclusion rules in order to focus on the very impressive range of US press packs, most of which are issued in customised glossy folders complete with production notes, biographies and a selection of promotional b/w photos.
Valuing these press kits can be challenging as they come with varying numbers of photos which, over the course of time, can become separated from the original kit. At the same time additional promotional photos are produced which may never have been intended for inclusion in the original pack. Furthermore, some packs were issued with different sets of promo photos albeit that each contained certain core photos. This happened with the UK promo packs for 'Desperately Seeking Susan', which were each issued with a set of eight photos, and explains why the core photos are very common while others are extremely scarce.
For the collector, it is difficult to know whether or not a press pack has a 'complete' set of photos. Some kits come with only a small number of photos that have generally remained intact within the press pack (Bloodhounds / Shadows and Fog) while others come with photos that are helpfully numbered sequentially (Shanghai Surprise / League Of Their Own / Body of Evidence) which makes it easy to spot and hunt down any that are missing. However, it is often the case that press kits do not come with a complete set of photos but just a selection. Having said that, one kit that definitely did come with the full set is 'Vision Quest' which includes a document stating exactly which photos are included - no other press kit provides likewise. Unfortunately, the 'Vision Quest' press kit also has the distinction of being the hardest to track down, as the movie was a limited distribution resulting in only a small number of kits issued.
By far the most challenging press kits to 'complete' are those for 'Desperately Seeking Susan' and 'Who's That Girl' which come with a large number of photos with differing credits - some of the images are issued with no fewer that three different credits.
This brings us to the tricky task of valuations. A nominal value of £10 has been given to each press pack which is increased incrementally by a further £5-£10 for each promotional photo contained within. The packs for the main big-budget movies also originally came with a selection of promotional slides and these have also been nominally valued at £5 each. While this is what each item tends to cost to source individually (not to mention postage costs) it resulted in excessively high valuations - valuations of £200+ are not realistic! Therefore the valuations shown below have been capped at £100.
Videography
|
test
PEV 11459 PES 11459 |
Vision Quest aka 'Crazy For You' (UK video only release)
1986 - First issue in large box 1991 - Reissue with alternative sleeve in standard box PROMOTIONAL ITEMS: US press pack with eight documents, fourteen promo photos, and a promo 7” single by Journey US additional promotional photo of Madonna European set of two promotional photos that feature Madonna US promotional poster for cinema release (due to no UK equivalent) Australian promotional poster for video release with alternative 'Crazy For You' title as per UK release |
£
£1 £1 £100 £10 £20 £10 £10 |
|
test
0235 0235 VVD 421 083 822 3 |
Desperately Seeking Susan
1986 - Original 'Rank' release in large box 1986 - Reissue 'Rank' release in 'hi-fi' large box 1988 - Reissue 'Virgin Film Collection' release in standard box 1991 - Reissue '4 Front Video/Virgin Film Collection' release in standard box PROMOTIONAL ITEMS: US press pack with eight original documents, eighteen promotional photos and four slides UK press booklet with cover letter, document and nineteen promotional photos International press pack with three original documents and eighteen promotional photos UK triple press booklet containing details of available advertisements UK colour promotional photo UK quad poster for cinema release (40"x30") UK advert for cinema release UK booklet for video release |
£
£3 £1 £1 £1 £100 £100 £100 £10 £10 £50 £5 £10 |
|
test
TB 069 COL 1053 V 3253 - |
A Certain Sacrifice (video release only)
1985 large box release - True Blue Productions 1985 standard box release - The Collector Series (Castle Vision) 1988 standard box reissue - M.I.A. (Missing In Action) 1990 cardboard slip case - issued with 'Adults Only' magazine |
£
£1 £1 £1 £3 |
|
£
PEV 11695 PES 11695 |
Shanghai Surprise
1987 - Original release in large box with blue background on rear 1989 - Reissue in standard box with red background on rear PROMOTIONAL ITEMS: US press pack with original production document, six customised promotional photos and eleven slides US additional set of ten promotional photos with generic credits UK synopsis with six uncredited photos UK spiral bound production booklet with eight uncredited photos UK reel video UK quad poster for cinema release (folded) Standee for cinema release Advert for cinema release UK poster for video release (folded) Sample sleeve for video release |
£
£1 £1 £100 £50 £40 £40 £50 £20 £30 £5 £10 £5 |
|
£
PEV 11758 PES 11758 |
Who's That Girl
1987 - Original in large box with black spine label 1987 - Reissue in standard box with red spine label PROMOTIONAL ITEMS: US press pack with two documents, eleven photos with the official 'Warner' logo credit and seven slides US set of three promo photos with official 'Warner' logo and extra 'WTG' credits US set of eighteen additional promotional photos with alternative 'BK' credits US promo photo with 'WTG' instead of 'BK' credit US promo photo with unique credits UK spiral bound booklet UK invitation set for cinema screening UK rectangular strip of circular promotional stickers UK promotional badge UK quad poster for cinema release (40"x30") UK large 'bus stop' promotional poster for cinema release (40"x60") Full page advert for cinema release Half page advert for cinema release Poster for video release (18"x27") Advert for video release |
£
£10 £1 £100 £30 £100 £10 £10 £20 £40 £10 £2 £20 £30 £5 £5 £20 £5 |
|
£
NVT 12455 CVR 22455 CC 7042 NVT 12455 |
Bloodhounds Of Broadway
1989 - Original large box Columbia Pictures release with cream sleeve 1990 - Reissue by Columbia Pictures in standard box with blue sleeve 1990 - Reissue by Cinema Club in standard box with blue sleeve PROMOTIONAL ITEMS: 1989 - UK video 'sample' promo only issue US press pack with two documents and four promotional photos Poster for US cinema release (27"x41") (included due to no UK equivalent) |
£
£10 £1 £1 £20 £50 £10 |
|
£
D310662 D410662 |
Dick Tracy
1990 - Original large box Touchstone release 1990 - Reissue in standard Touchstone box PROMOTIONAL ITEMS: US press pack with documentation and thee promotional photos with 'Dick Tracy' logo credits US additional set of eleven mainly 'split' promotional photos US additional set of eight mainly 'solo' promotional photos US set of three slides Poster for UK cinema release (40"x30") Poster for UK video release - 'I'm on my way' (23"x33") Poster for UK video release - long version (15"x60") US press pack for video release with six documents and two promotional photos with 'Dick Tracy' logo credits |
£
£1 £1 £40 £100 £80 £15 £10 £10 £10 £30 |
|
£
Mad 18 Mad 18 Mad 18 Mad 18 Mad 15 Mad 15 |
In Bed With Madonna (aka 'Truth Or Dare')
Red titles (18) - Standard release Red titles (18) - Limited edition standard release with promo poster Red titles (18) - Limited edition release with 1992 calendar (exclusive to WHSmiths) Red titles (18) - Limited edition release with six postcards (exclusive to Woolworths) Blue titles (15) - Standard release Blue titles (15) - Standard release with marketing sticker and postcards PROMOTIONAL ITEMS: Press booklet with additional production document and seven b/w photos Set of six UK colour lobby cards Set of six US b/w promotional photos for 'Truth Or Dare' Set of four US colour slides 'Exploitation' press book Promotional poster for video release (40"x30") Promotional poster (40"x30") given away with initial copies of the video Promotional standee for Woolworth's video release (assembled in four parts) |
£
£1 £5 £25 £10 £5 £10 £80 £60 £60 £20 £10 £10 £5 £150 |
|
£
CVR 22822 |
Shadows And Fog
1994 - Standard release PROMOTIONAL ITEMS: US press pack with two documents and five promotional photos Poster for UK cinema release (folded) |
£
£1 £60 £15 |
|
£
NVT 14589 |
A League Of Their Own
1992 - Standard release PROMOTIONAL ITEMS: UK press booklet US complete set of 18 promotional photos Set of three promotional slides Poster for cinema release (40"x30") Poster for cinema release (40"x30" - alternative version) Promotional pen US promo pack for video release Advance release sample sleeve for video release |
£
£1 £20 £100 £15 £10 £10 £5 £20 £5 |
|
£
G 8705 |
Body Of Evidence
1993 - Standard release PROMOTIONAL ITEMS: US press pack with documentation and complete set of fourteen promotional photos US promotional photos with alternative photographer credit UK set of five promotional photos UK set of 17 promotional slides UK alternate set of 16 promotional slides UK promotional poster (13.5x20") US promotional poster (24"x36") UK set of three lobby cards |
£
£1 £100 £30 £50 £30 £30 £10 £20 £10 |
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© madonna-decade 2013
© madonna-decade 2013