<Tr> <Th> Budget </Th> <Td> A $1,884,200 (US $2 million) </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Box office </Th> <Td> $29.7 million </Td> </Tr> <P> The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is a 1994 Australian comedy - drama film written and directed by Stephan Elliott . The plot follows two drag queens played by Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce and a transgender woman, played by Terence Stamp, as they journey across the Australian Outback from Sydney to Alice Springs in a tour bus that they have named "Priscilla", along the way encountering various groups and individuals . The film's title references the slang term "queen" for a drag queen or female impersonator . </P> <P> The film was a surprise worldwide hit and its positive portrayal of LGBT individuals helped to introduce LGBT themes to a mainstream audience . It received predominantly positive reviews and won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design at the 67th Academy Awards . It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section of the 1994 Cannes Film Festival and became a cult classic in both Australia and abroad . Priscilla subsequently provided the basis for a musical, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, which opened in 2006 in Sydney before travelling to New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada and Broadway . </P>

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