STRONGSVILLE, Ohio — Twenty-five years after "Wet Hot American Summer" flopped at the box office, the beloved cult comedy is still drawing devoted fans — including many who gathered this week at Camp Cheerful in Strongsville to celebrate the film and its Cleveland area roots.

Among them was writer and director David Wain, the Shaker Heights native whose comedy career has taken him from MTV's "The State" to directing films like "Role Models," "A Futile and Stupid Gesture" and his latest release: "Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass."

WKYC's Mike Polk Jr. caught up with Wain during the celebration to reflect on the surprising staying power of "Wet Hot American Summer."

"When we were making it, I said, 'I will be shocked if it gets released,'" Wain recalled, with a laugh.

It nearly didn't. Released in 2001, the movie bombed at the box office before slowly finding an audience on DVD.

"It was a real bomb in the box office," Wain said. "Then the DVD came out and people started discovering it and talking about it — passing it around, making it their own. The fact that it's now built up this following over all these years is quite astonishing and wonderful."