'Sex' Overcomes Slow Saturday and Sunday, Wins Box Office

We've been tracking the performance of Sex and the City all weekend, and after all that - the $20 million Friday replaced by a $26 million Friday and what that could mean for Saturday and on through the weekend - turns out our initial hunch on Thursday was closest to its actual production. Easily the number one movie in large part because of its very big Friday night, Sex and the City made $55 million in its debut, so says Box Office Mojo, a comfortable $20 million over some projections, and yes, that is the biggest opening of all time for a romantic comedy. Indiana Jones, which we suggested would make about $47 million prior to the weekend, did just that (OK, $46 million...), recovering from a rather puny Friday to actually win the box office on Saturday and Sunday. It has now earned over $215 million, so it should or at least could catch Iron Man in the summer sweepstakes. The big surprise is really neither one of those films, but rather the horror movie The Strangers. Bucked from release dates a few times, the film scared up $20 million in ticket sales, roughly double what analysts estimated it would. It could have a nice run for a few weeks as counterprogramming for those who have already seen the big May movies and find themselves waiting for more dramatic summer fare like The Dark Knight. For Sex and the City, though, it looks like the party may not last that long. Just look at the raw numbers: $26 million on Friday and only $29 million the rest of the weekend. Usually, the weekend's big film (or films) will see a spike on Saturday and a return to Earth on Sunday. But Sex and the City joins 2008 releases like Cloverfield and Prom Night, movies that opened stronger on Friday than virtually disappeared for the rest of the weekend, setting the table for a lackluster run the rest of the way. In this case, Sex and the City lost a third of its audience on Saturday ($18 million) and another 40% of its crowd on Sunday ($11 million). When you add in that, in week two, most blockbusters only make 50 - 55% of what they made in their debut, suddenly doubt starts to creep in about whether or not Sex can hit the number put up by the similarly-targeted The Devil Wears Prada. Can Sex sell to the tune of another $70 million in tickets if it only makes another $35 million in the next seven days? Yes, the film will make money in the long run, but those Saturday and Sunday numbers are incredibly discouraging.