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"It was a movie that was not a draw by any means," said Munson, who now runs the Rialto and Colony theaters. "If my memory is correct, it actually did a little bit better business after it got its name in the paper."

The "Erotique" situation prompted Munson and the theater owners to be leery of screening any more questionable films in their establishments. "You can show the [body] parts," he says. "You can let people know what's being done. But I can't show 'tab A' slipping into 'slot B.' "

And just because a film is willing to do so doesn't mean audiences will check it out. Since debuting a couple of weekends ago, the $2 million "Shortbus" has grossed $720,654 domestically, far from making it a hot-button hit. (The movie's marginal hype is what made The Carolina Theatre in Durham decide to pass on it.)

Different from porn?

Chelsea proprietor Bruce Stone is well aware that most moviegoers, especially in the Triangle, wouldn't be tuned in to the flick's hardcore harmony. When "Bunny" played for a week at the Chelsea two years ago, it made, in his words, "nothing." "It's hard to gauge," says Stone, "but there's a kind of core audience I have that kind of turns off to that, if you know what I mean."

However, he does think there is an audience in the Triangle for films like "Shortbus" -- people he calls a "hip, late-night, heavily pierced kind of crowd" who work at coffee houses and go to concerts at night. But he says they may not be aware of such movies.

"The people who should be at the audience for those films don't pay enough attention to those films here," says Stone.

Alan Palmer hadn't heard about "Shortbus," and the 27-year-old Raleigh resident goes to the art houses twice a month.

"I think there should be an audience for it," he says. "It's artwork, and if people don't agree with the content, well, that's their personal preference. If it's like NC-17 or whatever the age restriction is, ... children won't be able to see it."

Stone, of the Chelsea, says what makes films like "Shortbus" a cut above run-of-the-mill, hardcore pornography is that they attempt something that porn films gave up on a long time ago: an engaging story.

"There's gonna be more in the film than the sex -- characters, story, something," he says.

Keeley, the distributor, admits that these films may not make a lot of money at the box office but they often find an audience on DVD.

" '9 Songs' is one of our best-sellers," he says. " 'Anatomy of Hell' is one of our most consistent sellers, especially online. Theatrical for us has become a promotional tool, but DVD is kind of the lifeblood of most of these films.

"I don't know if it's an awakening, but there has been an awareness that sex does not equal porn. It's a part of everyone's life and not something to be swept under the rug. The great thing about 'Shortbus' and '9 Songs' is that there's more and more sex in the films, but it's not about being sexy. If anything, it's about making the sex seem more normal."

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