Last night I watched Basic Instict 2. The movie is nothing special, but the history of it is. When it was released, it did poorly at the box office but later it did very well at home video rental. There is a similar movie history, Showgirls. It got the infamous NC 17 rating and made only 20 million at the box office, and got butchered by every critic. Fastforward it to homevideo, and it made 100 million, making it one of the top 20 earners ever for MGM. Personally I liked it, at least it sure isn't the worst movies ever made as most people call it. So it looks like movies with graphic nudity are shunned at the box office, but rented like honey when Americans can watch it in the privacy of their home. Hypocrisy and prudery at its best.
Good point. I forget, however - was he into girls, guys or maybe switch-hitting? Doe anyone remember which movie he got caught at "with his pants down"? As to the OP, no other explanation comes immediately to mind (at least to my mind) other than those already offered. Seems like an awfully "soft" way to get your porn on though...
Seems he was watching a double feature at the time.. The movies shown at the South Trail Cinema, that day were.. Catalina Five-O and Nurse Nancy.
It certainly is, I also heard in one of the many psychosexual health classes I took that the number of online porn subscriptions in the American Bible Belt are higher than in any other region in the nation. It seems the more you are told not to do it the more you want to do it. I know from personal experience, I once was watching Showgirls on HBO back when I was in middle school and my mother flipped out and wouldn't let me finish it, so it then became my life's goal to find Showgirls again and find out how it ended.
But perhaps since the DVD of the movie cost over 20.00 and the movie theater only charged 5.00 to see it was the big difference. The people who attended the movie wanted to buy it and did so when it was available which would account for the greater amount being made for the DVD sales. Then again perhaps people heard about it and wanted to have it instead of just going to the movie once, they would have it to see over and over that way. :shrug:
It is not just the renting/buying of it that is interesting, but the general low opinion of professional reviewers, when it wasn't such a bad movie. It looks like the critics felt the need to put the movie down, just because a few steamy and unusual sex scenes.... I actually like Elizabeth Berkley, just saw another movie, Detonator with her today... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! She was kind of blacklisted after Showgirls, and had trouble finding roles, but eventually she came out OK...
And there are people who next to never go to the theater to see a movie. No matter what it is. They simply don't like the theater experience. Too loud, too many distractions, too much rudeness, ect.
The Donna Dicksin Line Either that, or people in the Bible belt are too stupid to figure out how to get their porn for free. (I would also note that, of every paid porn site I've ever seen—and, yes, other people put the money down, not me, as I prefer simple, easy, free pornography—the images absolutely suck. No, really, there is little among pornography less titillating than a stereotype with bad lipstick, oversized gajangas, fishnet stockings, and high heels. Well, okay, there's this obese guy in the midwest ... er ... never mind. Suffice to say that everyone should enjoy their creativity as such, but I don't ever again want to stumble into a photoset featuring a man of such dimensions doing what he's doing while wearing that. But as a general rule, sure. Yeah. Why the hell are they paying for porn?)
We have been socialized to view sex and nudity as extremely private practices/states, almost akin to going to the bathroom... It is a social construction, that varies according to group beliefs, but overall I think that American aversion to nudity and Sex images is a very interesting thing to think about. Why do we hide this thing that is as basic and necessary as breathing and eating? fascinating really, oh how we've constructed our world...