I know that I've written a lot about this film, but damn each day with the more I read about it, the more nervous I get about how much weight is being placed on the success of the film.
It's a good thing that women are really, really excited cause the film cost $60 million to make o it has a serious nut to crack towards success. But as the frenzy continues, The NY Times reports that studio execs are shocked at the interest. I'm not surprised since Warner Brothers is the studio that shut down both its specialty divisions and is known not to be interested in scripts by women. Just goes to show how out of touch the studio system is from real people.
But even executives at Warner Brothers — the studio that inherited the film several weeks ago, in the process of absorbing New Line Cinema, which made it — seem mildly shocked by a growing rush toward the box office.PLEASE! This shock at women being interested at seeing films has got to stop. We want to see movies, it's just that Hollywood doesn't make movies that appeal to us. What other big movies this summer are targeted towards women aside from Mamma Mia?
One for the Ladies — and Their Friends
Time.com even got some box office experts to rate the potential opening numbers (when has that happened before for a women's film?)
The experts said:
Paul Dergarabedian: I wouldn't underestimate this one.Handicapping Sex and the City
Belinda Luscombe: I have drunk the Sex and the City Kool-Aid.
Chad Hartigan: I don't think anybody who liked the show when it was in its prime on TV is going to stay away.
EW dedicated its full issue to Sex and the City. Here's the most interesting part of the interview with Sarah Jessica Parker:
EW: New Line's marketing department has referred to the movie as ''the Super Bowl for women.'' Those are some high expectations. Is it daunting?Sex and the City Movie
SJP: Um...sort of. You know, I want it to do well. I have in the past made it my business to not pay attention to weekend numbers, cause there's simply nothing you can do. But obviously there's more at stake with this movie, personally, than there has been with other movies, because of the involvement I have in it. I want it to do well and I want people to believe that there are female audiences. That's the bigger story for me here: I want people to make good movies for women of all ages, whether they're 11 or 68 years old. I want to convince those people who hold the purse strings that it's worth their money and their time. I want to be part of proving that. I think we've done it in television. People are constantly, constantly asking me, ''How do you feel about Lipstick Jungle and Cashmere Mafia?'' And I say, ''I am thrilled that the networks think that it's important to have female programming.'' So if we can have meaningful numbers, substantial numbers, then I think it portends well for women in general: as audiences, as actors, as producers, as writers. I would just like to see that happen.
EW: There are so few movies made for women these days, let alone a movie with four female leads who aren't 20!
SJP: I know! I know! I remember growing up, I saw movies about grown-up women. Every New Year's, we went to see a movie and almost every single one of them that I remember — from An Unmarried Woman, to Annie Hall to Manhattan to All that Jazz to The Turning Point — had grown women in them. And everybody went and they were movies that were considered the serious, important movies. There is this idea that only 14-year-old boys go to movies. That's not entirely reflective of the audience out there.
EW: And come on, the female sex is still the majority, last time I checked.
SJP: [Laughs] As much as they can't staaaand to hear it!
God, I love her!
