Sex sells

By Scott Bowles, USA TODAY

Sporting Manolo Blahnik heels and designer handbags, women powered Sex and the City this weekend to the biggest debut on record for a romantic comedy.
The movie's estimated $55.7 million take, the fifth-highest debut for an R-rated film, sent producers and Warner Bros. executives huddling to think up a sequel.

"We're definitely open to another movie," says Darren Star, creator of the series and producer of the film. "You always want your movie to connect, but no one could calculate how deeply people felt about this."

Except, perhaps, the show's rabid fans. Women, who made up 85% of the audience, flocked to theaters dressed as their favorite characters and turned the film into a nationwide ladies' night out.

"We've been waiting years for this," says Patricia Ackerman, 42, who went with four girlfriends dressed more like they were headed to a premiere than a Saturday matinee. "This is our Indiana Jones."

The movie nearly doubled its projections. Most analysts figured its R rating would hold the opening to about $30 million.

But most box office analysts are men.

"I don't think most guys get it," says Vonnessa Martin, 39, who caught the Saturday evening show with her best friend in Santa Monica. "This isn't a movie that I really wanted my husband at. You want to see it with friends who know the characters and feel connected. We treated it like a formal dinner party."

Not that men didn't show.

"Our agreement was she see Iron Man and I'd see Sex and the City," says Bill Coventry, 33, of Malibu. "I'd never seen the show, but it was all right. But I feel like I need a beer with the guys to get my man card back."

After the success of 2006's The Devil Wears Prada, "the notion of women — and older women at that — not being viable hitmakers in summer is out the window," says Paul Dergarabedian of industry tracking firm Media By Numbers. "They've rallied around this film in a way I've never seen before."

But he's leery of Hollywood rushing to crank out quick chick flicks.

"Studios have tried to emulate the success of Passion of the Christ and that didn't work," he says. "Neither did copycats of The Blair Witch Project. Getting that lightning in a bottle again isn't easy."

The film played to sold-out theaters in New York and Los Angeles, and Warner Bros. says the movie's healthy $16,000-per-screen average held up in most major cities, including Cleveland, Dallas and Kansas City.

"Bring on the sequel, girls," says Warner Bros. distribution chief Dan Fellman.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was second with $46 million. The Liv Tyler horror film The Strangers had a strong debut, taking third place with $20.7 million, more than twice its expected haul.