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Can a
pure chick flick become a hit? Yes, if it draws a
diverse enough swath of female moviegoers. For Sex
and the City, that will be the big question.
There
are indications that the film, which opens Friday, is
attracting a lot of interest from women of all ages—not
just the age of the four lead actresses, who range from
their early 40s to just over 50. (The movie is now in
Philippine theaters.—Ed.)
“We
can’t remember the last time a movie has created so much
anticipation among female moviegoers from their 20s
through their 40s,” said Harry Medved, a spokesman for
Fandango, the online movie-ticket site. Medved said many
women seem to be planning to go in groups. “We are
getting a surprising number of requests for group ticket
sales from women planning Sex and the City
get-togethers,” he said.
THE big-screen adaptation
of HBO ’s seminal series
Sex and the City opens
in North America with “so much anticipation from among
female moviegoers from their 20s through their 40s.”
It’s not
just the ticket sellers who are noticing the trend.
Abbey Greenberg, coowner of a specialty cookie company,
says she’s been getting calls by the dozens for her
stiletto-shoe creations.
“It’s
been crazy,” says Greenberg, of The Flour Pot, which is
based in Ambler, Pennsylvania. “They start out by saying
they want the shoe cookies. Then they say they need them
for May 30th. Of course, it turns out it’s for a Sex and
the City party.”
Often,
the hostesses say they’ll be drinking Cosmopolitans
before the movie, too—the favorite drink, as fans of the
HBO series well know, of sex columnist Carrie Bradshaw
and her pals, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte. Sometimes
the hostesses add that they’ll be dressing up in high
style, as well.
“This
movie just calls out for a girl’s night out,” says
Greenberg, 27, who herself plans to see the film with a
group of women, although not opening night, and not
especially attired. “I’ll wait until it’s less crazy,”
she says.
Fandango, which is the largest online ticketing service
but still represents a fairly small percentage of total
sales, surveyed buyers who’d just purchased tickets for
the film.
As of
Friday, 67 percent of more than 2,800 who filled out the
survey—a self-selecting group, to be sure—planned to see
the film in a group of women. Only 6 percent said they
were going with a man, and 16 percent said they were
going with one other woman.
Oh, and
asked their gender, 94 percent of ticket buyers said
they were women.
You only
have to look back two years to The Devil Wears Prada,
another female-oriented film heavy on fashion (with the
same costume designer) and juicy female characters, to
find a movie that scored big despite an overwhelmingly
female demographic.
But
there’s a difference: Prada was rated PG-13,
whereas Sex and the City is rated R, with good
reason, as any fan of the often explicit series knows.
That will severely limit the teen audience (those under
17 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian).
“This
movie really will be a paternity test for R-rated,
female-driven romantic comedies,” said analyst Jeff Bock
of box-office tracker Reel Source. “There haven’t been a
lot of movies like this.” Bock predicts the movie will
have a strong opening weekend, then a big drop-off.
“There’s no getting around that this is a film oriented
to women and gay men,” he said. “It will be very hard to
get past that, especially with a lot of
testosterone-driven films out there this summer.”
Indiana
Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
drew families in droves to achieve the second-biggest
Memorial Day weekend opening ever, with an estimated
$151.1 million in the US and Canada from Thursday to
Monday (and $160 million overseas). By contrast,
industry projections have Sex and the City
bringing in from $25 to $40 million in its first three
days.
Still,
one analyst thinks Sex and the City may surprise
skeptics. “A huge female audience can create a
blockbuster of a movie if there’s enough interest,” said
Paul Dergarabedian, president of the tracking firm Media
By Numbers Llc. “We’re seeing that women from 20 to 55
are very interested.”
To
Dergarabedian, Sex and the City could be “a
different kind of date movie”—a date among girlfriends:
“This should be a major bonding ritual.”
But
could there be a downside to all the buzz surrounding
this heavily marketed film? The current issue of Time
Out
New York
features Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte on the
cover—but with their mouths taped over.
“No
Sex!” the cover reads. “Enough already. We love ‘em, but
it’s just too much.” |
