Box Office Review: Sex = Money

Screw this! When's the 'Arliss' movie coming out? | Photo courtesy of New Line Cinema

In what can only be considered a shocking debut, Sex and the City ($55.7M) steam-rolled Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ($46M/$216.8M) to win the weekend box-office crown. As recently as a few days ago, prognosticators were pegging the film to do between $25-$35M in business. Those estimates, though, completely missed the frenzy that the film caused in its predominantly female audience. Whether Sex and the City can maintain any momentum going forward is debatable since almost half of its weekend gross came from Friday audiences who rushed out to see the film to the tune of $26.9M.

Horror flick The Strangers had a good opening ($20.7M) despite stiff competition. After that it was all hold-overs: the super-powered Iron Man ($14M/$276.6M), the disappointing Prince Caspian ($13M/$115.6M), the terrible What Happens in Vegas ($6.8M/$66M), the winning Baby Mama ($2.2M/$56.1M), the forgotten Speed Racer ($2.1M/$40.5M), the desperate Made of Honor ($2M/$42.9M) and the funny Forgetting Sarah Marshall ($1M/$60.4M). In limited release, The Foot Fist Way did okay ($9000 per theater) while Stuck ($5100 per) and The Unknown Woman ($6000) were mediocre.