Showgirls Poster Original One Sheet 1995 Sexploitation
Australian One Sheet.Showgirls is a 1995 erotic drama film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Joe Eszterhas. Starring Elizabeth Berkley, Kyle MacLachlan and Gina Gershon, it centres on a "street-smart" drifter who ventures to Las Vegas and climbs the seedy hierarchy from stripper to showgirl. Produced on a then-sizable budget around $45 million, significant controversy and hype surrounding the film's amounts of sex and nudity preceded its theatrical release. In the United States, the film was rated NC-17 for "nudity and erotic sexuality throughout, some graphic language, and sexual violence." Showgirls was the first (and to date only) NC-17-rated film to be given a wide release in mainstream theatres. Distributor United Artists dispatched several hundred staffers to theatres across North America playing Showgirls to ensure that patrons would not sneak into the theatre from other films, and to make sure film goers were over the age of 17. Commercially at the box office it did not perform as well as hoped but Showgirls enjoyed success on the home video market, generating more than $100 million from video rentals, allowing the film to turn a profit. Showgirls has become regarded as a cult film and has been subject to critical re-evaluation, with some notable directors and critics considering it a serious satire worthy of praise.
