The Rocky Horror Picture Show while the film's fan culture of cosplaying and audience participation during screenings laid the groundwork for the similarly influential cult following surrounding Tommy Wiseau's "The Room" (2003). Members of the queer community comprised most of the Rocky Horror cult following: they identified with the embrace of sexual liberation and androgyny, and attended show after show, slowly forming a community. Judith A. Peraino compares Brad and Janet’s initiation into Frank N. Furter’s world to the self-discovery of queer identity, and to the traditional initiation of ‘virgins’ in the shadow screenings . June Thomas describes the midnight screenings in Delaware as a
The Rocky Horror Picture Show reached No. 12 on the Australian albums chart and No. 11 on the New Zealand albums chart. The album is described as the "definitive version of the ["Rocky Horror"] score." The film opened in the United Kingdom at Rialto Theater in London 14 August 1975 and in the United States on 26 September at the UA Westwood in Los Angeles, California. It did well at that location, but not elsewhere. Before the midnight screenings' success, the film was withdrawn from its eight opening cities due to very small audiences, and its planned New York City opening on Halloween night was