Showgirls is reportedly the biggest-selling MGM DVD of all time.

So how did it go from flop to hit?

Wed wager this is at the same point where AOL had barely pressed a million of those infamous CD-ROMs.

But then MGM was certain it had a hit on its hands.

Well, until the reviews started rolling in.

For Eszterhas, a second high profile project inJadewould meet a similar fate three weeks later.

ButShowgirlswas the one taking the bigger criticisms.

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A waste of a perfectly good NC-17 rating said Roger Ebert.

Showgirlswould be offensive if it hadnt been hyped, wroteEmpire.

Hunting for a positive review took all the power of the webs then-infant search engines.

To this point, the film had already attracted its fair share of controversy.

Most teenagers I know have fake IDs.

A film that was already a tabloid football took a few more kicks.

But for MGM, it seemed the worst was yet to come.

For when the film eventually made it to cinemas, the commercial kicking soon matched the critical one.

And that would appear to have been that.

OnlyShowgirls,nearly two decades on, has proven to be a very successful business venture, indeed.

Instead, her movie hit at the time proved to beThe First Wives Club.

But who talks about that anymore?Showgirls, however, has endured.

You read that right.

Of all the DVDs MGM has ever released,Showgirlsis the one thats grossed the most.

If only all box office flops were so successful, we might have aDreddsequel by now.

Yet the cult ofShowgirlsisnt a new thing.

In fact, it started to grow within months of the films original run falling flat.

And people started to come.

So did Lin Tucci, who played Mama Bazoom in the film.

She was introducing the film with, er, her party piece at one stage.

But MGM/UA had a fair idea.

We received 13 Razzie nominations and there are only 12 categories, proudly boasted an unnamed studio executive.

And the critics were calling it a camp classic.

Whereas 1995 hits such asPocahontas,Dangerous MindsandAce Ventura 2rarely get talked about,Showgirlskeeps going.

Thats whyShowgirls, nearly 20 years on, still gets to play in cinemas reasonably regularly.

It should be noted that the dislike ofShowgirlsis not unanimous too.

Certainly, as a piece of entertainment, Nayman has a case.

Id argue thatShowgirlsis a better film thanBasic Instinct.

It goes nasty, and any sense of playing things for fun dissipates.

Still, Gina Gershon always felt there was more to it than just sexploitation and campiness.

As she explained around the launch of the film, This movie really represents the Aphrodite-Psyche myth dead-on.

So she sends her lover/son Cupid down to destroy Psyche.

Now, Cupid would kind of be Kyle MacLachlans character, and Nomi is Psyche, and Im Aphrodite.

And instead of killing Psyche, Cupid recognizes her beauty and potential and falls for her.

Just in this case over a long period of time.