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 was able to talk distributors into midnight screenings, starting in New York City on April Fools' Day of 1976. The cult following started shortly after the film began its midnight run at the Waverly Theater in New York City., then spread to other counties in NYC, and to Uniondale, L.I. "Rocky Horror" was not only found in the larger cities but throughout the United States where many attendees would get in free if they arrived in costume. The western division of the film's release included the U.A. Cinemas in Fresno and Merced, the Cinema J. in Sacramento, California, and the