Thursday, May 29, 2008

"Sex and the City" fans planning big film weekend

Sex! Sex! And more sex!!!
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Move over Indiana Jones. This weekend is shaping up to be all about sex at U.S. theaters, with an online ticket agency finding nearly 70 percent of women are planning special group outings to see "Sex and the City."

The online survey of more than 9,300 people by Fandango, which sells tickets for more than 15,000 U.S. screens, also found 80 percent were planning to attend a "Sex and the City" get-together before or after seeing the film.

And 68 percent of those surveyed -- 94 percent of whom were women -- said they would be drinking the Cosmopolitan cocktail, made famous by "Sex and the City's" Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha.

"There has been some significant anticipation for this," said Rick Butler, Fandango's chief operating officer. "The television series has a loyal fan base."

By Wednesday, "Sex and the City" accounted for 90 percent of Fandango's advance ticket sales, easily trouncing "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," which only made up 7 percent.

But the movie is unlikely to make anywhere near the $151.1 million grossed by "Indiana Jones" when it opened over the U.S. Memorial Day weekend. Box office predictions for "Sex and the City" range from $25 to $40 million its first weekend.

The "Sex and the City" film picks up where the hit HBO cable TV series ended four years ago after six seasons. Based on Candace Bushnell's autobiographical columns in The New York Observer newspaper, the TV series won eight Golden Globes and seven Emmys.

Reuters/Nielsen

No comments: