Editorials > "Sex and the City" Beats "Indy"

"Sex and the City" pulled a surprise upset this weekend and beat out Steven Spielberg's "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" by a notable margin of nine million dollars. In the process, "Sex" broke a series of records, including best opening for an R-rated comedy, best opening for a romantic comedy of any rating, and best opening of a film adapted from a television series (beating out the first "Mission: Impossible"). (Variety)

"Crystal Skull" did reasonable business despite the competition, making $46 million, pushing it over the $200 million mark. "The Strangers" had a surprisingly good opening this weekend as well, making $20.7 million, while only costing $9 million to make. You can practically smell the sequels already.

Variety also notes that the recent box office has been surprisingly dominated by female-interest films. On Friday, over 85% of "Sex and the City's" audience was female, quite a few of them over the age of 25. In addition, a surprising number of the films in the weekend top ten are romantic comedies. "Sex," "What Happens in Vegas…," "Baby Mama," "Made of Honor," and "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" have all met with appreciative audiences (certainly more so than "Speed Racer," which to date has grossed less than each of the aforementioned romcoms).

So what does this trend mean? Is it the age-old logic that people in times of recession/depression seek out more romantic/escapist fare as opposed to the darker side of the celluloid? Perhaps, though the success of "The Strangers" would seem to refute that. I'll let this become some other writer's research project, but I am a bit concerned that the 2009 market will become flooded with the kind of fluffy romcom pablum for which I have no use.

-David Morgan