Produced on a then-sizable budget of around $45 million, significant controversy and hype surrounding the amounts of sex and nudity in the film preceded its theatrical release.
Despite a negative theatrical and critical consensus, Showgirls enjoyed success on the home video/VHS market, generating more than $100 million from rentals alone, allowing the film to turn a profit.
She was also, Zack says, arrested several times, in several states, for various crimes ranging from drug possession and exchanging sex for money to assault with a deadly weapon.
This, along with the scripts for both Verhoeven's previous film Basic Instinct (1992) and Sliver (1993, also an erotic thriller starring Sharon Stone), made Eszterhas the highest-paid screenwriter in Hollywood history.
[20] Before Elizabeth Berkley was cast as Nomi Malone, a long list of actresses were considered for the role, including Pamela Anderson,[21] Drew Barrymore,[21] Angelina Jolie,[21] Vanessa Marcil,[21] Jenny McCarthy,[21] Denise Richards,[21][22] Jennifer Lopez,[23] and Charlize Theron.
"[28] Verhoeven asked Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics to not only compose the film's score, but to also write the music for the big Stardust hotel shows.
[33] As a consequence, MGM/UA largely relied on the controversy over the rating itself to generate audience hype, and mounted a promotional blitz that capitalized on the film's potentially lurid subject matter.
"[34] The promotion included billboards in Times Square and Venice Beach, an interactive adults-only website,[35] and circulation of a "sneak preview" videotape at rental stores, which featured eight minutes of explicit footage not shown in theatrical trailers.
"[13][34] Eszterhas, who believed the film's message to be about the moral costs of the pursuit of stardom, urged teens under the age of 17 to sneak into the theater by using fake IDs, prompting censure from MPAA president Jack Valenti.
[11] The film was released in Germany on Ultra HD Blu-ray by Capelight Pictures in 2020, based on Pathé's restoration, which was noted for having high noise reduction.
[50] It was released on Ultra HD Blu-ray in the United States by Vinegar Syndrome in 2023, which received a stronger review for picture quality by High-Def Digest.
In the Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan wrote the film "has somehow managed to make extensive nudity exquisitely boring" and "descends into incoherent tedium.
"[53] He added, "Though the filmmakers' incessant talk about vision, artistry and honest self-expression lead one to expect a sexually explicit biopic about the Dalai Lama, what is in fact provided is depressing and disappointing as well as dehumanizing.
[53][54][55] Rita Kempley of The Washington Post wrote, "Like the bimbo she plays, Berkley's minimal acting talent limits her choice of roles.
[58] In her review in The New York Times, Janet Maslin wrote, "the strain of trying to make America's dirtiest big-studio movie has led Mr. Verhoeven and Mr. Ezsterhas to create an instant camp classic".
Granted, Paul Verhoeven's tale of a Las Vegas lap dancer is one of Hollywood's all-time stinkers, but it does come from a long and healthy tradition – the trashy, backstage show-biz epic", referring to films like The Oscar and Valley of the Dolls.
MGM noticed the video was performing well because "trendy twenty-somethings were throwing Showgirls irony parties, laughing sardonically at the implausibly poor screenplay and shrieking with horror at the aerobic sexual encounters".
Because of the film's frequent nudity, though, a censored version was created with black bras and panties digitally rendered to hide all exposed breasts and genitalia.
[46] On March 20, 2024, the Academy Museum held a screening of Showgirls in Los Angeles, with an introduction by Berkley who received three standing ovations by the sold out audience.
[98] Critics such as Jonathan Rosenbaum and J. Hoberman,[99] as well as filmmakers Jim Jarmusch,[100] Adam McKay[101] and Jacques Rivette,[102] have gone on the record defending Showgirls as a serious satire.
[103] In a 1998 interview, Rivette called it "one of the great American films of the last few years", though "very unpleasant: it's about surviving in a world populated by assholes, and that's Verhoeven's philosophy".
[102] Quentin Tarantino has stated that he enjoyed Showgirls, referring to it in 1996 as the "only ... other time in the last twenty years [that] a major studio made a full-on, gigantic, big-budget exploitation movie", comparing it to Mandingo.
[100] "Verhoeven may be the bravest and most assured satirist in Hollywood, insofar as he succeeds in making big genre movies no one knows whether to take seriously or not", wrote Michael Atkinson.
Noël Burch attests that the film "takes mass culture seriously, as a site of both fascination and struggle" and uses melodrama as "an excellent vehicle for social criticism.
[9] In 2020, Hugh Montgomery of the BBC described Berkley's portrayal as "the definition of a star turn: absolutely singular, and charged with a haywire electricity", adding, "It benefits from the meta-authenticity that comes from a young entertainer pulling out all the stops for her shot at the big time, playing a young entertainer pulling out all the stops for her shot at the big time.
[46] The violence of the gang rape scene has generated criticism and debate, with some describing it as being in poor taste and unnecessarily brutal because it happens to the film's prominent woman of color and serves mainly as a catalyst for Nomi's moral arc.
"[117] Verhoeven said a sequel had been in development before Showgirls was released, with the film's final scene of a sign for Los Angeles hinting at a plot where Nomi takes on Hollywood.
Titled Showgirls 2: Penny's from Heaven, it was written, produced, edited, directed by and starred Rena Riffel, who was the only character returning, apart from cameos by Glenn Plummer and Greg Travis.
The original off-Broadway production was critically lauded for April Kidwell's performance as Nomi and for staying true to the source's campy nature.
The original cast featured Kidwell as Nomi, Rori Nogee as Cristal, John E. Elliott as Kyle McLachlan, Marcus Deison as Molly and James, Philip McLeod as Gay and Amanda Nicholas, Natalie Wagner and Israel Vinas as the ensemble.