Starship Troopers was a flop in theaters when it debuted in 1997 since audiences either expected it to follow the book (mixed opinions here) or be on par with Cameron’s Aliens. The R rating also doomed it because some states also enforce the age restrictions; when I was a projectionist in North Carolina, the General Manager paid the fine when unaccompanied kids under 17 are caught.
Personally I liked it. To me, Paul Verhoven brought a little symmetry through the MI’s uniforms’ resemblance to the USCMC’s…Cameron had all the marine actors read the novel (Michael Biehn got an exception for replacing James Remar at the last minute) to get into the militaristic mindset. With my part-time job at Park Place 16, I saw Troopers a few more times, piecemeal, and realized that some aspects were a parodies of propaganda. Much like his violent Eighties masterpiece Robocop.
Then I watched it in its entirety about a year after the 9/11 shitstorm…how sadly life imitates art. This link from Cracked (when did they become funnier than Mad?) makes a great argument about how Paul Verhoven must be a time traveler sent to the ‘past.’ I hope life has a better ending than art received which entailed two mediocre sequels.