Three weeks after its premiere, \u2018Sharknado\u2019 is still raining down great whites and hammerheads for the US cable television network Syfy \u2014 and even splashing them across movie screens.<\/p>\n
The campy, low-budget TV disaster movie about a hurricane that unleashes an aerial shark attack on Los Angeles has proven that a B-movie can still be a big cult winner, especially when social media acts as its marketing machine.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t replicate something like this, you can\u2019t force-feed it \u2014 it just sort of happens,\u201d director Anthony C. Ferrante said ahead of special midnight Sharknado showings in 200 US theatres last week.<\/p>\n
Syfy already has ordered a Sharknado sequel and although the film is not yet a month old, it is drawing comparisons to The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the 1975 cult classic that has made its mark as a midnight feature.<\/p>\n
Sharknado\u2019s debut on July 11 drew an audience of about 1.4 million \u2014 slightly under Syfy\u2019s average for made-for-TV films \u2014 but it generated a significant 5 000 tweets per minute at its peak.<\/p>\n
Top-shelf tweeters included Rosemary\u2019s Baby actress Mia Farrow, The King of Queens actor Patton Oswalt and 30 Rock actor Judah Friedlander, who each enjoy large Twitter followings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe irony is that I thought we\u2019d probably get the horror fans but the best we could hope for is the midnight cult following just because it was so strange and then it blew up,\u201d Ferrante said.<\/p>\n
The film, which stars former B-list actors Ian Ziering and Tara Reid, has its lead characters attempt to save Los Angeles from \u2018sharknados\u2019 with chainsaws and bombs as the killer fish eat their friends and destroy landmarks such as the Hollywood sign.<\/p>\n
Sharknado also has attracted larger audiences in subsequent re-broadcasts, including 1.9 million on July 18 and 2.1 million on July 27.<\/p>\n
\u2018This generation\u2019s \u2018Rocky Horror\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is unusual is to have the second airing (with) more (viewers) than the first,\u201d said Horizon Media analyst Brad Adgate. \u201cThat never happens to that extent \u2014 2.1 million isn\u2019t something that an original movie can do on Syfy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Syfy, a unit of NBC Universal\u2019s Comcast Corp, produces about 20 films annually, including titles such as Dinocroc vs. Supergator and Piranhaconda, at about $1.5 million per film.<\/p>\n
Although Sharknado might not add much to Syfy\u2019s bottom line aside from some DVD sales and on-demand Internet streaming, it has been a publicity coup for the network, Adgate said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt put them in the mindset of viewers for what kind of movies they put on, this tongue-in-cheek, hokey type of movies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt started in social media but it was also in the mainstream media. That\u2019s what really propelled it to become a cult classic. Maybe it\u2019s this generation\u2019s Rocky Horror Picture Show.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sharknado was tailor-made bait for Twitter and Facebook with its zany premise and so-bad-it\u2019s-good special effects, social media analyst Carri Bugbee said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople naturally want to talk about and riff on things that are internet memes and cultural touch points, like movies, music, and TV,\u201d Bugbee said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you create something wacky and outrageous it gives anybody an opportunity to say something funny to entertain their friends,\u201d she said. \u201cI sort of see it as a natural extension of something we saw in the past with Rocky Horror Picture Show.\u201d<\/p>\n
That low-budget cult film has grossed more than $100 million at US theatres over nearly four decades.