sisterhood of the traveling pants 2 Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Although I'd seen it twice already, I went ahead and accompanied my father to a showing of Pineapple Express last night, only to be greeted with a surprisingly packed 8:10 showing in the theater's largest auditorium. When we exited, the immediate lobby was fairly lined up with those waiting to catch the next showtime, and when I dashed across the hall to peek in on the 9:30 showing that some of my friends had caught, it was in an auditorium half the size and equally packed, down to people actually sitting on the floor space typically reserved for those in wheelchairs (fire hazard, schmire hazard).

I only say this because, if I hadn't gone last night, I would've been truly taken aback with the film's record-breaking $12.5 million opening yesterday. (In comparison, Superbad opened to $12.3 million last year, but on a Friday.) This bodes better for Pineapple than I had expected in general, what with it only having a week to itself before Tropic Thunder does its best to snatch away its overlapping audience.

Oh, and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 also raked in almost $6 million itself, so, um, yay for that.

Even before Sex and the City proved a hit of modest blockbuster proportions, women, such as our own Kim Voynar, were asking whether the film's popularity could lead to more female-targeted fare from Hollywood. Not necessarily "chick flicks," which we already see every now and then in the form of stale romantic comedies (like Made of Honor) and other small movies involving a female protagonist -- but big, smart, well-funded movies that appeal primarily to the ladies. You know, as in the female equivalent to comic book and action movies like Iron Man and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (yes, I know many women were fans of both these "guy" flicks). Well, according to a piece in Variety asking the same question, women can at least look forward to Sex and the City 2. That's good enough, right?

Apparently New Line is already at work on the Sex sequel, but studio execs are predictably responding to the success of Carrie and Co. as a fluke. Warner Bros. head Alan Horn, who jokingly told Variety that the sequel will be titled Sex in the Suburbs, said last weekend's Sex opening was "unusually big" and claims similar projects wouldn't do as well. In a way, he's right, pointing to the fact that Sex had a built-in audience, being based on a hit TV series. Meanwhile, Universal's Donna Langley, also acknowledging that Sex is "outside the norm," at least says it's something to aspire to. Her studio also has a female-targeted movie coming out this summer: Mamma Mia!. But again, that, as well as this summer's The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, has a built-in audience.