MovieChat Forums > Magic Mike (2012) Discussion > So how come this made money and was a hi...

So how come this made money and was a hit but show girls tanked..

posted 9 years ago by chrismatt83
6 replies | jump to latest

Was it because steven soderbergh or the plot was better in magick mike..

[–] JohnnyWeissmuller 9 years ago

Showgirls was camp, crass and completely false. Magic Mike, on the other hand, rung true in the way it was interested in the central characters, boasted genuinely charismatic performances and played very much like a backstage drama of the best kind. It's not very deep, especially when some of the characters are simply archetypes, but it's more honest than Showgirls and that's probably the defining factor. To defend Showgirls just a little, at least the actors, especially Elizabeth Berkley, are obviously committed. She doesn't act so well but she dances fine, as do the others. It's completely sleazy, of course, has zero imagination and is basically a sexual soap opera. I've seen worse and whilst Magic Mike probably plays strongly to some women's fantasies and the idea of what Magic Mike represents, it's so much more than that. Showgirls is actually less than it aspires to be.

NOW TARZAN MAKE WAR!

[–] DoomMarineid 9 years ago

Showgirls was made for women, women don't want to see other women succeed, they're back-stabby like that. On the other hand, Striptease was made for men, it made over $100 Million. The lesson to learn is that if you're going to make a movie with nudity, make it for the opposite sex, don't make it a poor-me sob-story.

[–] HowYaLikeDemApplesWill 9 years ago

Where is the evidence to back your supposition?

Whose idea was it for the word "Lisp" to have an "S" in it?

[–] rkramer-389-888083 9 years ago

Striptease bombed. It made 30 million bucks.

[–] stephtastrophe 9 years ago

I liked Showgirls but I'm a girl and agree that although about female strippers I found the plot to be far more targeted to girls who liked Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place - kinda why I liked it although I would've thought with how sleazy some of the scenes were that guys would've liked it too tbh. So I never really got why it tanked but this wasn't as sleazy. Hmm. I only watched this today but saw Showgirls a year or two ago, both about strippers but I enjoyed both tbh.

real human being and a real hero

[–] ricky_says_hi 9 years ago

Showgirls tanked for a lot of reasons:

* Bad word of mouth - much like the disaster that was Mommie Dearest, Showgirls got a reputation as an unintentional comedy due to the bad acting, the bad script and the weirdly unsexy fetish scenes.
* The rating - it had an NC-17 rating, and any films rated that are usually viewed as a step down from porn and that turned audiences away.
* The budget - Showgirls had a $45 million budget, which means it had to make double that to be considered a success. It also had no notable stars to justify such a large cost
* The content - Showgirls is pretty much an exploitation film, and those were falling out of favour in the 90s

Magic Mike meanwhile first of all had a low budget of $6 million. That is nothing in Hollywood, and as such is easy to make back. Channing Tatum, Matthew McConaughey and Alex Pettyfer were all reasonably well known among the female demographic the movie was aimed at. Tatum was also enjoying a very successful 2012 and was slowly becoming a bigger star.And the movie got rave reviews, which meant that a lot of people probably went to see it just to find out what the critics were going on about. The fact that it also had a respected director attached to it probably did a lot to give it a good reputation.