The Rocky Horror Picture show turned 45.

[MummyChunk]

Cool article from the DO about the 45th anniversary of the RHPS (back
in January)

From DO
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Rarely does a film come along that stays in theaters longer than the
first few months of release. Of course, most films aren t The Rocky
Horror Picture Show, a musical / comedy / science fiction / horror
phenomenon that has continuously screened in select theaters for 45
years.

The cult classic follows the adventures of a young couple, Brad and
Janet, who become trapped in a mysterious castle filled with eccentric
characters as they travel through a town called Denton. At the heart
of the castle is Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a mad scientist of
extraterrestrial origins who leads the mysterious Annual Transylvanian
Convention.

The film will screen on Saturday, Jan. 25, at the Inwood Theatre in
Dallas, complete with a shadow cast, in which actors perform in
front of the screen as the film plays. The shadow cast tradition is
popular among cult movie enthusiasts, and will be performed by the
local acting group Los Bastardos, who will perform at several
screenings of the film throughout the year at the Inwood Theatre and
the Alamo Drafthouse in Denton.

The second Friday of every month, you can also catch The Rocky Horror
Picture Show performed by Amber Does Dallas at the Angelika Theater at
Mockingbird Station.

A send-up of science fiction and horror B-movies, The Rocky Horror
Picture Show celebrates its 45th anniversary in 2020 and has dominated
the cult movie scene since its debut. Although it was released to
mostly negative reviews and bombed during its initial theatrical run,
the film was repurposed by 20th Century Fox as an early midnight
movie at the Waverly Theater in New York around April Fool s Day in
1976.
In the pre-internet era, The Rocky Horror Picture Show became one of
the earliest examples of a media property being sustained by a niche
fandom, both nationally and internationally. The first national Rocky
Horror Fan Club was founded in 1977 by Sal Piro, who would go on to
author many novels about the Rocky Horror phenomenon, including 1990 s
Creatures of the Night.

While there were previous examples of works sustained through zealous
supporters such as the letter-writing campaign to save the original
Star Trek series throughout the late 1960s The Rocky Horror Picture
Show was an anomaly in that it became a phenomenon following its
initial intended release. Because of the frequency of screenings in
art house theaters around the world, it still holds the title of
having the longest sustained theatrical run of any film in history.

Audience participation has been a longstanding element of the cult
phenomenon, and over the course of the film s near half-century of
release, different traditions have emerged. In addition to dressing up
as characters and reciting the film s lines, audience members will
often shout out new bits of dialogue in response to key moments in the
film, such as the iconic musical number Time Warp.

Celebrated for its oddball characters, peculiar mix of genres, and
elaborate musical numbers, The Rocky Horror Picture has resonated with
those looking for something outside of the mainstream. While it began
as a small underground movement, Rocky Horror would begin to enter the
mainstream consciousness in the decades since its first showing, with
tributes appearing in such shows as The Simpsons, Glee, That '70s Show
and American Dad, as well as a 2016 TV remake entitled The Rocky
Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again, starring Laverne
Cox.

The film featured breakthrough LGBT visibility in film with the
character Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a cross-dressing scientist who performs
mysterious experiments in his secluded castle. The role was a breakout
for actor Tim Curry, who had previously starred in the 1973 stage
musical of the same name, and would go on to play many iconic roles in
both film and theater, including the butler Wadsworth in the 1985
comedy classic Clue, Pennywise the Clown in the 1990 adaptation of It
and King Arthur in Monty Python s Spamalot.

The future of The Rocky Horror Picture Show as a late-night tradition
is unclear, as the film was initially produced and released by 20th
Century Fox, which was officially bought by the Walt Disney Company in
2019. Unlike Fox, which allowed theaters to screen many of their older
titles such as Alien, The Princess Bride, Titanic or The Sound of
Music, Disney has been much less lenient in giving theaters access to
its catalog of films.

There would likely be mass outcry from fans if Disney blocked theaters
from showing The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Disney has enacted an
exemption to their policy of dissolving screenings of older films in
this specific case. It may be difficult for other classics to develop
the same sort of prolonged circulation, however.

With stricter restraints from studios like Disney and the advent of
streaming services, the future of specialty cinematic events like The
Rocky Horror Picture Show are ambiguous. While films like The Room,
Withnail & I and Repo Man have also enjoyed a second life thanks
to niche fandoms, the success of future cult films is reliant on their
access and availability.