When Is Too Much More Than Enough? : Movies: Saturation selling may not make people rush to see ‘Dick Tracy.’ The independent film ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ had a better opening weekend.

I had a dream this week. I dreamed that as I was driving to work downtown, down Main Street through Reaganville, I spotted a tall man in a yellow raincoat and yellow fedora walking among the homeless handing out “Dick Tracy” T-shirts and telling everybody to be sure to watch him that night on “The Larry King Show.”

“Warren? Warren? Is that you?”

Who can explain a dream? Perhaps it was just my subconscious trying to cleanse itself of the overload of “Dick Tracy” hype, or trying to come to grips with the Walt Disney Studios’ dubious boast that 100% of Americans were aware of Warren Beatty’s new film before it opened. As my father told me a long time ago, be wary of round figures.

Whatever the actual pre-opening awareness on “Dick Tracy,” it was high. Disney spent an estimated jillion dollars launching the film, and the once press-shy Beatty--like a reformed celibate making up for lost time--has given himself over to every talk show that would have him. He may not appear downtown, but if you see someone who looks like him selling zircon-studded dog collars on one of those cable shopping shows, don’t be surprised.

It has not been a pretty sight. In person and off the air, Beatty is an engaging conversationalist who has lots to say. In person and on the air, he is a steamed clam. It’s hard to know how his halting manner on these shows will make people want to rush out to see him in the role of the Sunday funnies’ toughest crime fighter--especially when his laid-back performance has been the most criticized element of the movie--but nobody can accuse him of not being a good sport.

This is the weekend that will determine how well the Beatty Tour has really worked. The film’s $22.5-million opening weekend gross was good, but not great, and if business doesn’t pick up now that school is out across the land, there is little chance of it becoming a hit even in the range of Disney’s recent “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” ($130 million), “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” ($153 million) or the still-hustling “Pretty Woman” ($139 million).

In interviews with print journalists, where red lights flicker on tape recorders instead of cameras, Beatty has gone on at length about his distaste for box-office reporting in the mass media. His point is that by ranking films by their popular success, we not only demean those that are not intended for broad audiences, but we actually generate business for bad movies.

It’s something to consider but, at the same time, there is irony aplenty in his saying this while working for a studio that is reaping a fortune from “Pretty Woman,” a successful bad movie if there ever was one. Imagine someone suggesting a modern fairy tale featuring Sleeping Beauty as a gum-gnashing streetwalker and her Prince Charming as a ruthless corporate raider who pays $3,000 to make love in the spa of his penthouse suite in the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. Hey, kiss a frog, you never know.

When I tried to describe “Pretty Woman” to a friend before it opened, she said “It sounds like a pre-AIDS movie.” Pre-AIDS? It’s pre-dirty feet. It makes Hollywood Boulevard look like the yellow brick road.

So hand it to the Disney executives who saw the charm in a tale of two societal losers turning a simple sexual arrangement into true love and exploring their humanity together. And give them credit for successfully opening it as a romantic comedy, then continuing to spend the ad money necessary to maintain its standing on the box-office chart where--by Beatty’s reckoning--its very presence would guarantee even more business.

“Pretty Woman” is not the only bad movie out there making money. In fact, all you have to do is check the chart: “Total Recall,” “Another 48 HRS.,” “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” “Bird on a Wire.” Some people would even include “Dick Tracy” in that list. Despite the studio’s clever ad campaign, which positions “Dick Tracy” as the best-reviewed movie of the year, the reaction has been far from unanimous.

At the very least, Beatty is guilty of protesting too much about the media’s reporting of box-office receipts; at worst, he’s decided to throw in with the varmints. Certainly, the exploitation of his celebrity has been almost unprecedented. It’s like Marlon Brando showing up on “Hollywood Squares.”

The Times, of course, has not been immune to the seduction of Disney’s “Dick Tracy” promotion. I interviewed Beatty and wrote 100 inches about the encounter. The saving grace is that I interviewed him way before he put on his fedora and took the show on the road.

Anyway, the effectiveness of the saturation campaign is much in doubt. Vastly more people knew about “Dick Tracy” before it opened than those who knew about “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” yet the independent “Turtles” had a higher-grossing opening weekend during a traditionally slower season.

Whatever “Dick Tracy” eventually earns, Disney won’t be able to blame Beatty. Having sat out the selling of his last two films--”Reds” and “Ishtar”--the star has answered the call.

It’s hard to imagine that months ago someone at Disney seriously believed that Beatty would agree to hock publicity as eagerly as that guy in their “Ernest” movies, but it sure didn’t hurt to ask. Hey, kiss a frog, you never know.