Movies - Cult film

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A cult film is a movie that attracts a small but devoted group of fans, usually failing to achieve considerable success outside that group.

Overview

Most movies considered "cult films" failed to achieve mainstream success upon original theatrical release, often grossing more money in video rentals and sales than in theater tickets. In most cases (but by no means all), the film hardly makes an impression with the general public and critics are often apathetic as well. However, a small, devoted group of viewers, often "film buffs" or film students, show an extreme appreciation of the film.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show
is possibly the best-known and longest-running cult film. The movie combines the conventions from science fiction and horror films and included elements of transvestitism, incest and homosexuality — all within the context of a musical. The film received little attention when first released in 1975 but, a few years later, fans showed up at midnight screenings at repertoire theaters, dressed in costume and "participating" in the film (e.g. throwing rice at the wedding scene).

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is one of many cult films to survive initial box office failure by finding success in other outlets. Like Rocky Horror, Night of the Living Dead
, Pink Flamingos
, Female Trouble
, The Hills Have Eyes
and Eraserhead
achieved cult status through repeat screenings at independent repertory cinemas, most usually during late night "midnight movie" screenings. Such films were cheaper for theaters to hire than current releases and thus were more sensible to screen during late night when attendance was lower. Night of the Living Dead, in particular, was free to screen since it had accidentally fallen into the public domain. In the early 1990s many repertory cinemas went out of business due to changes in cinema ownership and distribution.

Network television, cable television and pay-per-view stations have also changed the nature of cult films. Despite failing to meet box office expectations, Blade Runner
was a favorite of early pay-per-view and HBO. Repeated showings on Comedy Central helped popularize Office Space
and Half Baked
.

In most cases, these films tend to enjoy long runs on video, thus being issued in more video "runs" with more copies than other movies. The box office bomb Office Space managed to financially redeem itself when word-of-mouth made it a popular video rental, and Fight Club
and Mulholland Drive have earned considerably more in DVD sales than they did in movie theatres. Also, cult movies are more likely to be issued on newer video technology in the technology's early days than other films.

Although films of all types of genres and plot conventions become cult films, the horror and science fiction genres produce a large number of cult films, perhaps due to the devoted nature of these genres' fan bases. Also films that have unconventional plotlines, strange senses of humor and which generally deviate from current trends in film are more likely to become cult films.

Many significant cult films are independently made and were not expected by their creators to have much mainstream success. These include Night of the Living Dead, Easy Rider
, Pink Flamingos, Eraserhead, Assault on Precinct 13
, and Slacker. Other cult films have the backing of major studios but did not initially meet with the financial success these studios typically enjoy. These include the aforementioned Blade Runner
, Fight Club
, and 1941
, as well as such films as Legend, and Dune
. In rare cases, a film is both a huge, major studio release and a cult film, because a small, devoted following exists within the film’s larger audience (i.e. 2001: A Space Odyssey
, Taxi Driver
and the Star Wars franchise.) With advances in web-based film distribution, films such as Life of a Tennis Ball can develop a cult following even without being commerically distributed.

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Movies - Cult film

Overview

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