'Sex and the City 2' and 'Prince of Persia' defeated by green ogre

By Sarah Sluis

All style and no substance. Everyone was talking about Sex and the City 2 in the weeks before its release,

but in the end it was less-hyped family fare that won out over Memorial Day weekend. With box-office revenue down 19% from last year, the holiday weekend was one of the weakest in years.

The weekend lost some of its punch from the Thursday debut of Sex and the City 2, which earned $14 million its opening day. Over the four-day weekend, it brought in a lackluster $37.1 million, but its five-day total shined a little brighter with a $51.3 million total, much closer to the $60 million forecast. Still, its underwhelming four-day performance put it in third place.

The other new release of the week, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, debuted to $37.8 million over the long weekend. Its family-friendly plot and characters meshed well with the family-

focused weekend. Kudos to Jake Gyllenhaal. Let's just hope his career doesn't turn into that of Brendan Fraser of The Mummy, whose latest turns have been family flops Furry Vengeance and Inkheart.

In its second week, Shrek Forever After held on to first place with just a 21% drop and another $55.7 million to add to its $145 million two-week total. Last week's $70 million debut was considered below expectations, but the strong second weekend puts it on track for a longer-tail profitability. By comparison, Shrek the Third dropped 45% in its second weekend--though that still gave the movie a two-week total of $217 million.

Specialty movies did particularly well this week. The playful French movie Micmacs averaged $14,100 per

screen on four screens, a healthy debut. Historical epic Agora filled theatres with an average of $21,600 per screen on two screens. The second week of Michael Douglas-starring Solitary Man was very promising, with a $17,000 per-screen average while adding two locations, for a total 12% bump from last week.

This Friday will offer a crowded but diverse bunch: comedy Get Him to the Greek vs. sci-fi horror Splice vs. action romance/comedy Killers vs. family pet comedy Marmaduke. Here's to a heated-up summer box office.

'Sex and the City 2' poised for blockbuster weekend

By Sarah Sluis

Midnight screenings of Sex and the City 2 grossed $3 million on Thursday, 20% more than the first

installment. This puts the femme-driven movie in position to earn at least $60 million this weekend. The first SATC earned $62.6 million over the four-day weekend, so the sequel should do just as well--if not better--in its 3,445 theatres. The sex 'n fashion comedy is unlikely to win any awards among critics, but it's sure to please the hordes of fans arriving to the theatres in stilettos. Who knows, maybe there will be a Sex and the City 3 in our future.

Going up against the girls' trek to Abu Dhabi, the competing release this week also features a Middle Eastern setting. Based on a popular video game, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (3,646

theatres) will play in a couple hundred more theatres but is unlikely to match SATC2's performance. In its favor, the PG-13 film is fairly tame and should attract family audiences. But it's unlikely to expand beyond its fan base, unless it attracts positive word-of-mouth. According to critic Daniel Eagan "this effects-laden spectacle delivers just what it promises and no more," and is "well-crafted but not especially original."

Those delighted by Amelie and Delicatessen will be thrilled to catch Micmacs (5 theatres in NYC), the latest from director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. "A love

story that blossoms in an underground junkyard inhabited by eccentric, slightly roguish characters with kind hearts and pure souls," according to critic Rex Roberts, the movie also includes a few scenes in the Middle Eastern desert (a trend of the week). With a liberal political message (anti-guns) along with deft use of YouTube, this movie will be a winner for Jeunet fans and other adventurous moviegoers.

Rounding out the mix, George A. Romero's Survival of the Dead will open in 21 theatres. The movie centers on a minor character from Diary of the Dead, rewarding loyal fans. Critic Maitland McDonagh called the movie a "shaggy dog tale," but noted that "if anyone has earned the right to trifle with the cannibal dead, it's the guy who unleashed them on us in the first place."

On Tuesday, Screener will circle back to count the spoils of the four-day weekend.

'Sex and the City 2' is not (quite) a romantic comedy

By Sarah Sluis

The reviews are in for Sex and the City 2, and some of them are positively scathing. If you start with the New York Observer review, which opened with "The only thing memorable about Sex and the City 2 is the number two part, which describes it totally, if you get my drift," and work down from there, you have a pretty good idea of what people are saying.

Sex and the City 2 is an extremely easy target, with its over-the-top antics and tenuous connection to real life (at least in movie form). But it's also worth noting what it's not. It's not a story that ends when the girl and the guy get together. And, as I mentioned in my own review, the movie is about how sex, the city, and relationships bond the women to one another. The men in the story are always less important than the friendships, and that's what sets this series apart. It's also what makes some people call the show feminist, empowered, and things like that. It's like the teen movie Now and Then, but with cocktails and crazy clothes.

Writer/director/producer Michael Patrick King's interview with the Wall Street Journal best illustrates how this works (my bolding).

"Mr. King admitted that 'Sex and the City' and its great volume of stories has affected the romantic comedies that have come after. "It's not that they're stealing from us, but we stole from life," he said. "And we got there first. But they've lost the comedy in romantic comedies, or they've lost the romantic. Like girls are doofuses and they're sneaking into beauty parlors and dying each other's hair blue," Mr. King said, referring to the Kate Hudson film Bride Wars."

At one point (when "Sex and the City" was a series), it did feel like it was emulating (a more glamorous than yours) real life, describing the details of socializing in Manhattan and the silly quirks of relationships. I don't feel that the movies capture that feeling as well as the series, which had an added intimacy by being televised in one's own home. I also think the costuming got way out of control--I sincerely doubt anyone would wear a ball gown skirt and T-shirt in a Middle Eastern market. It just looks weird.

Sex and the City has its many detractors, including those that despise its particular brand of feminism. The series itself was supposed to be revolutionary, because it had independent women who were single long after they were supposed to be. As King says to the WSJ, "Sex and the City is about outsiders. Single girls as lepers, should have been married by now. It's the reason the whole thing took off." However, the fact that three out of four of the women are married by the second movie may negate this point. Was "Sex and the City" merely reflecting the fact that people were no longer marrying and having children in their early twenties?

I'm at the point where I hope there won't be a Sex and the City 3 (I've had my fill), but I will also be eagerly awaiting the box office returns from today, opening day. If I can choose between last year's juggernaut Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Sex and the City 2, I'd definitely like to see more of the latter.

How will digital screens change the scheduling of blockbusters?

By Sarah Sluis

Earlier this year, when I spoke to a theatre manager for an unrelated article, he mentioned that their new all-digital theatre was able to show four simultaneous Twilight: New Moon midnight screenings to meet demand--half of the small town's eight screens. In the past, the theatre would have needed four prints in order to show the movie on four screens. Because of advance ticket sales, they were able to set aside the correct amount of auditoriums and fill four theatres with Twilight fans. As entire theatres to convert to digital, the combination of digital projection and advance ticket sale websites has the potential to change the movie exhibition landscape.

Because people are willing to pay surcharges for highly anticipated

movies, advance ticket sales for blockbusters will have the greatest effect on how movies are booked. If a blockbuster could sell out

half the multiplex in one night, wouldn't theatre owners just change

the schedule to get all those people into theatres? There's no way Twilight: New Moon could have earned $72 million in one day (a single-day record) without pre-sold shows and multiple theatres playing the movie at fan-centered times like midnight.

Today, for example, Regal reported robust ticket sales for Sex and the City 2 (opening six weeks from now), which outpaced sales of Kick-Ass last weekend. Depending on ticket sales, Regal can most likely add screenings to meet demand, depending on any contractual obligations it might have to show other movies X amount of times.

Advance movie tickets stand to become more popular as more

people buy smart phones that enable them to buy movie tickets. Fandango, Movietickets.com and others already have

iPhone apps for that purpose. Cost, however, will always be something

of an issue. People will only buy tickets in advance if convenience

trumps cost, and heading over for a Sunday afternoon show probably

isn't one of those times. Plus, movie theatres have to set their schedules in advance. While they can switch a movie to a larger theatre if it's playing better than expected, they can't change showtimes once they're published online and in newspapers.

One thing digital projection probably won't be able to change is the annoyance of a sold-out show on a Friday and Saturday night, when even middling movies sell out theatres. If you're lucky, it's playing in

multiple theatres and you can catch the show an hour later (if the next show's not sold out). If you're not as lucky, it's either choose

another movie, wait two hours for a better option, or go home. For those making last-minute decisions, it would be great to be able to purchase a ticket on a phone (no fees) if it's within a couple hours of a show. It gives the consumer more choice. If you can see that a show is sold out, you can pick a second-choice movie and show up later, or search for another movie theatre in the area. If fans buying tickets in advance for Harry Potter or Sex and the City or Avatar is beneficial for the theatres, they should find a way to let consumers buy tickets slightly in advance without tacking on extra fees.