How El Topo found its audience
A conventional release depends on broad advertising and a large opening. El Topo took a different route: it was shown at New York’s Elgin Theatre in a late-night slot, where a film could build a following one screening at a time. Allen Klein’s acquisition of U.S. distribution rights helped make that sustained release possible; John Lennon’s enthusiasm helped bring the film to Klein’s attention.
The distinction mattered. A midnight screening was not simply a regular movie shown later. It gave a strange, difficult-to-classify film room to attract viewers through recommendations rather than compete immediately for mainstream audiences. People who left intrigued—or baffled—could tell friends what they had seen, turning the screening itself into a story.
From unusual booking to cult reputation
That pattern suited Jodorowsky’s surreal western, whose startling images and symbolism resisted the usual pitch of a genre film. A steady late-night run let audiences encounter it as an event, and its growing reputation encouraged more people to seek it out. In this setting, “cult” described a devoted audience formed over time, not instant mass popularity.
The release helped demonstrate how distribution could shape a film’s afterlife. Securing rights and giving a movie a durable place to be seen could matter as much as a conventional advertising campaign: the theater became a meeting point where word of mouth kept the film alive. El Topo did not create midnight movies, but its New York run became an influential example of how an unconventional film could find its audience outside the standard release path.
