Thou Dude Abides (amen).

The Big Lebowski debuted at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival in the Eccles Theater, a high-school auditorium with room for twelve hundred and sixty-nine audience members.

A few months later, it opened across just over 1,200 theaters. The film finished with a gross of $48.3 million worldwide, roughly triple its budget excluding marketing costs, which rendered the box office returns roughly break-even. Though it was far from a financial disaster, The Big Lebowski’s box office results certainly rendered it a commercial disappointment. Critics, many of whom have since re-evaluated their sentiments, and audiences alike left theaters largely confused by the film’s lack of resemblance to the Coen brothers’ preceding entry, Fargo.

The majority of films, after such a debut, slowly fade into the ether, unremembered and unappreciated relics of their time.

As is the case with beloved cult classics, The Dude instead found a second life through midnight screenings, home video rentals, and a rabid fanbase — one that includes my brother and myself — incessantly quoting dialogue (“Am I the only one around here who gives a s*** about the rules?!”) to usually uninterested listeners. With these things and the passage of time, The Big Lebowski has become one of modern Hollywood’s most enduring films.

Superfans of the work eventually adopted a moniker to identify themselves: "the achievers." The moniker is, of course, a nod to the fictional charity in the film run by the millionaire Lebowski: Little Lebowski Urban Achievers.

By the year 2002, the film birthed its own fan-run annual festival in Louisville, Kentucky. The festival expanded to multiple major cities, featuring unlimited bowling, trivia, costume contest, and headlining sets from bands like My Morning Jacket (who performed in costume as characters from the film). Certainly, too, White Russians were poured aplenty. You can ask Jeff Bridges, who attended the Los Angeles festival a while back.

By now, it’s probably clear that there are legions and legions of Dude fans out there, and the film’s trajectory has taken on a life of its own. But did you know that the work has actually birthed a religion? Enough of a religion to have its own website (https://dudeism.com/), at least.

Open the site you’ll find a perfect introduction to the teachings of The Dude: “Just Take It Easy, Mankind! Come join the slowest-growing religion in the world.”

You can even get ordained as a ‘Dudeist Priest’, a title the site claims over 800,000 now hold. If your scam radar is going off, I don’t blame you. But getting ordained is apparently 100% totally free. The benefits? “As an ordained Dudeist Priest, you can minister over religious ceremonies in most U.S. States (laws vary, so check with your local County Clerk first), and assorted other countries. Preside over a wedding, funeral, or any kind of celebration with pride and authority.”

You might question, is this really a religion? How can this be? According to Dudeism’s own Rev. Dwayne Eutsey, Arch Dudeship, in his Take It Easy Manifesto: “Anyway, in defending whether Dudeism is really a religion, worldview, or what-have-you, a Dudeist must first address a very basic question: What makes a religion?” He then goes on to reference a few scholars, who’ve established, in their view, the basic elements of a functioning religion, and explains Dudeism’s approach to each element.

So, ya know. Don’t be so quick to write off the next box office flop, or whatever. Most film fans contend that speaking of a film in terms of financial results is not in keeping with the parlance of our times, man.