50 years following its debut,”The Rocky Horror Picture Show” continues to thrive.For many generations, “Rocky Horror” has regularly been shown at midnight screenings, often with enthusiastic shadowcasts performing the film’s events live on stage. The movie is somewhat lively, but audiences were invited to be extremely boisterous. Its queer and sexual themes are presented openly and in a positive manner. Young LGBTQ+ teens could go to midnight showings of “Rocky Horror” and feel comfortable, encouraged to express themselves fully. Depending on the atmosphere in the room, you might even find someone to kiss. “Rocky Horror” has been an ongoing party that has evolved, shifted in tone, and kept up with the times for fifty years.
The movie was adapted from the stage production “The Rocky Horror Show,” created by Richard O’Brien during a period of downtime in his life. The musical drew inspiration from glam rock imagery and blended it with “The Old Dark House” and various bizarre science fiction films that O’Brien enjoyed as a child. The central characters are the wholesome Brad Majors and Janet Weiss, who seek refuge in a Gothic castle during a storm. The inhabitants of the castle turn out to be bisexual cross-dressing aliens who spend their time dancing, performing Frankenstein-like experiments, and engaging in acts of cannibalism. It’s a lot of fun.
Of course, the film’s many fans will tell you that “Rocky Horror” was released in 1975 with negative reviews and minimal box office success. In fact, some of the initial test audiences left the theater. In the original stage production, Tim Curry portrayed the extravagant Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a role he also took on for the movie version. It’s one of Curry’s most famous roles. It’s difficult to resist. Yet, those early test audiences managed to do so. Curry remembered the walkouts clearly, which he discussed ina recent conversation with the Los Angeles Times.
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Early preview audiences left the screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The movie was made with a very limited budget of just $1.4 million.Star Susan Sarandonhas frequently mentioned the chilly and moist filming environment, as the film was shot in an actual castle … without any heating. She and Barry Bostwick portrayed Janet and Brad, O’Brien took on the role of the thin assistant Riff-Raff, Patricia Quinn played his sister Magenta, and Little Nell portrayed the fan girl Columbia. The main twink-monster character was performed by bodybuilder Peter Hinwood. Meat Loaf appeared as the undead biker, Eddie.
Curry remembers watching the finished movie at 20th Century Fox, and how the executives showed absolutely no reaction. As he put it, “You could feel the silence at the end. […] It wasn’t a very lively audience. There was really no response at all.” That wasn’t a positive indication. The situation became even more troubling when they decided to test “Rocky Horror” with a real audience. In their limited judgment, Fox chose to screen this eccentric, queer rock musical in a remote theater in Santa Barbara, California. This venue was filled with elderly individuals and a few confused college students. The college students stayed until the end. The older people didn’t even bother. “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” appeared to be in trouble.
The movie was finally released in the United States on September 26, 1975. It premiered at the UA theater in Westwood, California, and a few other venues in Los Angeles, with plans to extend it to eight more cities across the country. Westwood, as a note, is directly next to UCLA, and college students rushed to the theater to watch this bizarre new film. It became a success… but only at that single location. Due to its lack of popularity elsewhere, the broader release was limited.
Rocky Horror dominates the midnight movie culture
Fox was unsure how to handle their unusual failure. They attempted to present it as a double feature with Brian De Palma’s similarly chaotic film “The Phantom of the Paradise,” but that didn’t generate much interest financially. In 1975, however, a new trend was developing. Many theaters discovered that they could show more unconventional, bold movies starting at midnight, and they earned significant profits from the marijuana-smoking night crowd. Movies such as “El Topo,” “Pink Flamingos,” and “Night of the Living Dead” were earning large sums through the midnight screening circuit, and one of the Fox executives thought “Rocky Horror” could be an ideal match.
It was. “Rocky Horror” premiered at the Waverly Theaters in New York City on April 1, 1976, and people started arriving in large numbers. Tim Curry happened to live very near the Waverly at that time, and he went to check out the audience. He was really pleased. The theater was filled with attractive, party-ready individuals. “It was like a guaranteed party,” Curry mentioned. “And if he didn’t have a date, he might find one.” The word spread quickly, and “Rocky Horror” began being scheduled at other New York theaters. Then it expanded to other cities. By the early 1980s, it was shown at midnight on a weekly basis, across the country. The Nuart theater in Los Angeles still shows it today, screening the film every Saturday night with the live shadowcast Sins o’ the Flesh. Indeed, Fox never removed “Rocky Horror” from general release, so it’s technically the longest-running movie in film history.
The documentary “Strange Journey,” which focuses onthe increasing popularity of “Rocky Horror”came out in select cinemas on September 26, 2025.
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