Who's That Girl (1987 Film) - Release and Promotion

Release and Promotion

The film was released on August 7, 1987, in United States to 944 theatres. Warner Bros. did not arrange for an advance screening, as they believed that Madonna's appeal would draw moviegoers to come to the film. A pre-release celebration was held on August 6, 1987, at Times Square in New York, where Madonna arrived to promote the film. A crowd of almost 10,000 people assembled to watch Madonna. As an introduction to the day, the radio jockeys from New York's WHTZ radio station played Madonna's popular songs in the Square, atop a platform created for the event. The police closed off 43rd and 44th streets, but allowing the traffic to pass through Broadway and Seventh Avenue of Manhattan. Around 6 PM, limousines started to arrive at the Square, with celebrities and the actors of the film entering the fanfare. Madonna arrived in a low-cut, low-backed sequined evening gown and the short hair she had adopted for the film. Although she was late by about an hour, the crowd number continued increasing. Asking her fans good-naturedly to "Shut up, so I can talk", Madonna thanked everybody for coming to the opening of Who's That Girl. She talked about her experience of arriving in Times Square eight years before, and said, "I was completely awestruck. Ten years later, I see all of you who have come to see me, and I'm completely awestruck. Thank you, and I hope you like the movie." Saying this Madonna departed from the platform, and walked to the National Theatre. Joseph A. Cincotti from The New York Times noted that most of the crowd were in their late teenage years and early 20's. Some held up signs and photographs but he noticed the Madonna wannabes were absent, the adolescent girls who had imitated Madonna's early lace-and-leather look. This was a result of Madonna's more mature image from True Blue.

To further promote the film, Madonna embarked on the 1987 Who's That Girl World Tour. It was Madonna's first world tour, reaching Asia, North America and Europe. Musically and technically superior to her previous Virgin Tour, the Who's That Girl tour incorporated multimedia components to make the show more appealing. Madonna trained herself physically with aerobics, jogging and weight-lifting, to cope with the choreography and the dance routines. The stage was bigger than her previous tour, flanked with four video screens, multimedia projectors and a flight of stairs in the middle. Leonard became the music director and encouraged Madonna to go with the idea of rearranging her older songs and presenting them in a new format. Madonna named the tour as Who's That Girl, when during rehearsals one-day she looked at a gigantic image of herself, projected on a screen on the stage and mused about how much she has changed and "who was that girl on the screen?". The show consisted of seven costume changes, with song-and-dance routines, theatrics, addressing social causes—during "Papa Don't Preach"—as well as an encore, consisting of the title song "Who's That Girl" and "Holiday". The tour was critically appreciated, who commented on the extravagant nature of the concert and complimented Madonna for her dancing, costume changes and dynamic pacing. Who's That Girl was a commercial success, grossing in total of US $25 million by playing in front of 1.5 million audience members. According to Pollstar, it was the second top selling female concert tour of 1987, behind Tina Turner's Break Every Rule Tour.