• Variety, Monday, June 2, 2008 12 PM

In an unprecedented takeover by female viewers, "Sex and the City" grossed an estimated $55.7 million--racking up the best opening ever for an R-rated comedy, and beating holdover "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" for the weekend. No romantic comedy of any rating has opened to such numbers, prompting immediate talk of a sequel.

The film's unexpected performance stunned Hollywood and shattered "the decades-old thinking that older females can't fuel the sort of big opening" often enjoyed by a male-driven event pic or a family movie. On Friday, a "whopping" 85% of the "Sex" audience was female and 80% of that number was older than 25.

Warner executive Dan Fellman calls it "a cultural phenomenon. This demonstrates that given the right project, you can create a frenzy for the female audience, just like we are used to with boys and men."

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