Sex And The City Falls Short Of Expectations – Still Does Well

A year ago I was thinking that an upcoming “Sex and the City” movie would be an unstoppable box office juggernaut . That every women on the planet would be lining up to see it, and holding sex for ransom forcing their boyfriends/husbands to go along with them.

However, as we got closer and closer I started to comment on how little buzz I was actually hearing for the film (compared to how much I was expecting to hear). Women weren’t going as crazy over it as I presumed they would, and the marketing campaign was ok… but not pushed as the “event” I thought they would. So my original prediction of Sex and the City coming in just under openings like Pirates or Spider-Man changed to $72 million (which is still a HUGE number for 95% of movies) while some others were still predicting over $100 million. Well, we were both wrong.

Sex and the City came in with just over $55 million for its opening weekend. Now keep in mind, that is a GREAT number. Beyond solid (especially for a film that only cost $65 million to make). It’s just far bellow was a lot of people, including myself would have thought it could make a year ago.

Oh well… when all is said and done this film will make a very nice profit for the studio… and I know they said this movie was “the end”… but don’t count on it… in 3 years you’ll be hearing talk of another one when the studios realize that making a Sex and the City 2 for about $35 million could still make $70 or $80 million and the 4 stars still haven’t been able to really find careers outside of these roles and will work for fairly cheap. Count on it.

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13 thoughts on “Sex And The City Falls Short Of Expectations – Still Does Well

  1. The movie was fantastic, and nobody but this strange website has said that it underperformed. Are you for real? Your credibility is very suspect right now. I realize I’m weeks too late for this conversation but I just found this site and felt the need to comment.

  2. First of all, I loved the movie. Thought it was fun, and was what I was hoping for from the movie.

    Here’s the thing about the rottentomato — I doubt that most of those who rated the movie there actually saw it. So many just trashed it – calling them shallow, ugly people. The movie is really about friendship. Yes there is plenty of fashion but what is wrong with that. Many movies are have guys and their hot new cars, or games — so why is it stupid or wrong for the four women to enjoy fashion.

    I’m cool if someone sees the movie and they didn’t like it. I’m cool with it just not being some ones type of movie and them not checking it out. But seems silly for so many online to trash the movie when they never even saw it.
    I went with some friends at the 4:40pm (CT) showing and it was nearly sold out — and it was one of the first films in a long time that the theater clapped at the end, everyone talked how they loved it on the way out. My 58yr old mom and her friends went on Friday too. This is the first time my mom has ever gone to a movie on the opening day. I plan on going again cause a friend had a who couldn’t go this weekend, so we’ll be going this week.
    And it wasn’t until I read the length online that I knew it lasted over two hrs.. Didn’t feel it at all.

    I read that the numbers were better than expected from CNN.com and USAtoday — but yeah the numbers dropping is troubling. I hope they do well for the next couple weeks — I know it won’t do another 50something. The movie really felt like it was made for the fans. We wanted it and they found a way to give it to us — which I thank them

    I can’t say if you’d like this film if you didn’t watch the show, caus eI love the show so much. Spent the last couple weeks watching favorite episodes preparing for the movie, so I’m not one to gage an opinion on that. But hey wasn’t Serenity made for us Firefly fans. I was a fan and the found a way to give us more story ,and didn’t that really play to it’s fanbase

    just some of my thoughts- thanks

  3. The movie only made $55 mil because there’s only so many 40yr old women out there to see it, and that’s the bread and butter age for a movie like this. It can be argued that other age groups are interested in this movie, but when all is said and done, if you can’t attract a larger audience than what watched you on television, your movie will flunk when it comes to box office numbers (or fall short of expectations).

  4. I have to agree, the 55m it made was above expectations. It is interesting, however, that it lost momentum as the weekend went on. It’ll end up with about 125m, after all said and done, if it continues to drop the way it did. Not bad, but probably not good enough for a sequel either.

  5. Wow, John, you’re the only person I know that said that SATC actually UNDERPERFORMED with $55 million. Most publications I read felt that it did better. A film like this would never reach close to Spidey’s and Pirates’ numbers because it was made for women and more men tend to go to the theater than women.

  6. I thought your predictions last week were wildly out of control for SATC. Most other sources I was reading were predicting mid 40’s. Rotten Tomatoes this morning characterizes the film as beating industry expectations. Yet here at Themovieblog we get SATC falls short. interesting.

    By the way I really enjoyed it. It was everything I had hoped for, I was not bothered in the least by the film’s length (in fact was a bit sad to see it end). It was definitely geared to the shows fans, and it is not surprising to me that non-fans would want it to end early and drop the stories for any of the characters. The spirit of the show was always a nice balance among all four characters. Fans would have felt cheated if they had cut any of that short.

    Jennifer Hudson was very average. I’ll give her another chance before I put her on my list of actors who made a stunning debut and then never get close to recapturing the magic.

  7. I never watched Sex and the City so I can’t comment on the show itself or the movie, but I know tons of people who enjoyed the show… that being said… can anyone answer me when there was a time that a long running TV show was made into a movie for a theatrical release and it worked? I’m not talking remakes or made for TV reunion movies, and not talking something like X-Files either because that came to theaters when the show was still on TV… Granted there is X-Files 2 coming out soon and we will have to see there… but does it ever really work as well as they think?

  8. It’s interesting to note the box office for this for the weekend. $26.9 mil on Friday, but drops on Sat and Sunday to $17.9 and $10.8 respectively. That’s weird. Movies tend to rise on Saturday. My friend saw it on Friday and she said she felt under dressed because every girl there was dressed up like they were going clubbing.

    It will be interesting to see if this will have staying power like “The Devil Wears Prada” did.

  9. Hey Sahil,

    No sir, I believe you are totally incorrect. What have they done? Really? Sarah Jessica Parker has been in nothing but a couple of total bombs, and the rest of them have done NOTHING of note. They went form making millions and being the HOT thing… to practically being nameless nobodies over night.

    No, in three years when each of them is making total peanuts… and the producers come to them and offer them HALF of what they made with Sex and the City, but it’s still 5x more than anything they’re making now… they’ll take it and say “Thank you sir”. mark my words.

    :)

  10. John,
    Fortunately this is most likely the end. I dont think you could get these four women together for only $35M. They would probably demand the same amount they got for this film if not more. And I dont think they will have too much trouble getting work. After the end of the show in 2004 each of the women have been in atleast four movies….granted some of those movies were for cable and not for a theatrical release but still.

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