Sex and the City 2 was not a complete and utter box office disaster, although it did nowhere as well as the first movie. The larger disaster – beyond the millions of dollars the studio won’t make back – is that everyone involved with Sex and the City ruined what could have been a quality brand/franchise. Remember the TV show? Sure, there were problems, but it was actually about characters, and there was some good writing and there was, you know, actual character development for all four women. For the films, not so much. So whose fault is it? The writer/director Michael Patrick King? The executive producer Sarah Jessica Parker? The fans, for not responding to two-and-a-half hours of screeching about shoes and orgasms and desert jokes? Eh. SJP apparently thinks Michael Patrick King is to blame, at least according to the latest reports:
Sarah Jessica Parker has reportedly fallen out with Sex And The City 2 writer and director Michael Patrick King after public reaction to the film.
The movie, also starring Kim Cattrall and Kristin Davis, underperformed at the US box office and received a mixed response from fans and critics.
A source told the National Enquirer: “Don’t look for Michael on future projects – SJP feels he’s lost his hit-making touch.
“She felt unsure about the script from the start, especially the whole ‘the girls drop in on Dubai’ twist, but Michael assured her they had a blockbuster on their hands… and told her to trust him. She did – but she won’t make that mistake again.”
[From Digital Spy]
What’s funny to me is that historically, SJP has been very eager to take credit for SATC’s successes, as she constantly reminds the world that she is The Star of the series, as well as the executive producer, and that she got approval over the script (not to mention the schedule). But now that there’s a failure, she’s all “I didn’t have anything to do with it, it’s his fault!” If this report is true, SJP completely sucks for throwing King under the bus when she was a vital part of making SATC 2 happen.
Meanwhile, most industry insiders now acknowledge that the franchise is dead. While SJP happily talked about the possibility of a third film a few months ago, no one wants to touch it at this point. It’s dead. Thank God.
SATC posters courtesy of HuffPo & ScreenCave.
I have to say I didn’t see the 2nd movie. Saw the first and just couldn’t understand why it was popular. Women in the cliche roles of sex pot, over thinking, begging for family, and workaholic. I don’t like that movies for women are always about cloths and whinnying about every thing. That is what I got from the first one. So I just figured the 2nd would be the same. Then I saw the trailer with them in a desert and some random guy shows up well that was enough for me.
By the way someone gave me a copy of that 1st movie. If anyone wants it let me know. I could never watch that again. It cheapens women to me. Strong statement I know. But really why can’t they make good movie for women where the woman is strong and not complaining when she actually has everything.
Other than this film what do they have going on. Cynthia and Kristen are the two I see has actually having possiblity of doing something different.
Well good it is over and maybe this will be the end to OLD SHOWS going to the big screen.
I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that people don’t want to see these turkey-necked women traipsing around like their 20.
I am happy to say that not only have I not seen either of the movies, I have never seen a single episode of the show. The mere idea irks me. What is so liberating about a group of slutty women who whine about their lots in life?
Never saw the series, never saw either movie and frankly I suffered greatly just through the previews of the SATC2. Will never see the appeal of these women…glad it’s dead. RIP.
I used to be a SATC fanatic. I would have gone to see the 2nd film but the storyline of the girls going to Dubai just seemed super unrealistic and cheesy. The girls are supposed to be cool, sexy and COOL. They sucked the life out of the show and ruined it. SJP needs to take responsibility for the failures….MISS EXECUTIVE PRODUCER.
The nail was hit on head when it was mentioned that the “girls drop in on Dubai” was a bad idea. As someone who has seen every episode and both movies, it was an incredibly bad idea. No point whatsoever.
I wish Celebitchy had like/dislike buttons because I definately like your comment, Jen…
Most Hollywood movies are pure dreck anyway.
But, the fundamental problem with SATC is that it’s not really about women, it’s really about gay men.
When the cast was young— and the writing was fresher and more inventive—the basic dishonesty wasn’t as apparent. Now the fans are older and wiser and realize that there’s no “there there” when it comes to relating to the cast as somewhat equally maturing women.
@ jen – none of the women actresses have turkey necks that I noticed. They are all very slim and have one neck.
Also, by saying these women are traipsing around like they are 20… what? By traveling to a different country over a certain age? You don’t even make sense.
What’s up with that awful poster? SPJ looks cross-eyed and they made Kim Catrall look like a very weathered 30 year old…in real life, she looks like a weathered 55, so they should have stuck with that. I think this whole franchise is gross. Ew. To me it’s more realistic when the Golden Girls talk about sex.
How can someone say they’re glad the show is dead if they have never seen a single episode?
the series represents single women in new york, not women all over the world. go to NYC and there are women like that everywhere. just because this group of women acts a certain way does not mean all women do. it’s for entertainment purposes only. i hate when ppl make huge deals about how bad a movie is or show, then don’t see it! its for entertainment – if it doesn’t entertain you don’t watch it but don’t knock other people who enjoy it. i didnt like the second movie though i loved the show. its just supposed to be fun, not a comment on society and people take it that way.
She should be pissed at whoever their photoshop team is-aaaaaaaack! Scary!
@ Mare: because I’m sick of the press these women generate, that’s how!
I didn’t watch it because of the Dubai thing. Don’t these people know how women are treated in that part of the world?
I don’t get the fascination with the Sex and the City movies, the first one was not that great. I loved the series and they should have ended with that.
BTW
That pic of SJP is terrifying, and is that supposed to be Kim Catrall, lol!
I own the series, went to the 1st movie but had no desire to see the 2nd movie. The series had become stale to me.
SJP has made it clear that she is very involved in calling the shots regarding SATC. The second movie was a bust. Blaming MPK is not professional. Also, SJP and MPK have had a long standing relationship which (if this is true) is now compromised.
New York City was integral to the storyline. Traveling to a foreign country completely ruined the idea of SATC for me.
It was dead at the conclusion of the first movie. Only a moronic female character, Carrie’s age, would accept being stood up by her fiance, to marry him at a later point (being the gold digger that she is).
I can’t understand the interest in the second film.
How can it be titled Sex and the City when it takes place in Dubai?
Bushnell has made her money, via a mediocre book that can’t even pass as literature. Let’s move on to more intelligent female characters.
I went to see this movie and instantly regretted it. It was a series that was almost always only going to work on premium cable. I love all of the actresses involved, and did have fun with my girlfriends drinking cosmos and getting ready for our night out.
We uncomfortably laughed through a few jokes, and thought it was downright offensive by the time it got to the “Samantha going through menopause” and send up of Islamic culture jokes that ran throughout the 2nd half of the movie.
Gorgeous locations though, really made me want to go to Morocco.
I watched some eps of the series, and tried to watch the first movie, but I just couldn’t sit through it. No desire to see the 2nd.
How can SATC 2 “bomb” when it has taken in $274,492,978 in the worldwide box office (as of today)?
The production budget was $100 million, so they only made a mere $174 million on it, not counting DVD sales and other SATC paraphernalia.
I love SATC, but the last movie was really stupid…no sex and no city..WTF
Why “thank God?” If you don’t like the movie, don’t see it. It’s a MOVIE. And just because the 2nd one went off the rails doesn’t mean a follow-up wouldn’t be back on the mark. You wouldn’t be forced to see that one either.
Mixed reviews? I thought it was universally labeled crap. Oh well.
I think the movies ruined a very good series, but everyone saw $$$$$ and cashed in. King should be blamed for his lame story and script, and SJP holds some blame too – as the star and EP, she had power to make it better, didn’t, and then sold the movie hard for the PR blitz.
Worldwide it performed about the same as the first, but in the US it didn’t even crack the $100 mil mark, and the first movie was over $150 mil on a much smaller budget. Bad reviews and too many people thinking it looked bad just from the ads.
@ Jen, what the hell? Can you hate women more? Women age and they can still do whatever they want. I hate comments like that. You sicken me.
I didn’t see the second one because I hated the fact that she forgave Big and married him. He stood her up at the altar, how do you forgive that???? Also, three characters are married so it kind of pulls away from what the show was originally about.
SJP has been around the business a long time so maybe she’s learned to trust the experts (i.e., the writers, directors, etc.). Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t.
I think there will be one more movie here. All the stars have a 3 film contract, so it would surprise me if there wasn’t a third and let’s face ti nearly 300 million in WWBO in release only is just fine. All the ancilleries are still to come. I do agree though that the next one needs to redeem this one.
I don’t understand the second movie at all (I never saw the first one, so can’t compare). I mean, aren’t women its target audience? And one of the female stars was also a producer? Then why does the movie seem like it hates women? If I were a misogynist who HATED women, THIS is exactly how I would portray them – shallow, materialistic, and stupid. Why any woman would WANT to watch a movie that portrays women in that light is beyond me.
I agree with many on here who said the movie should have been based in NYC. Moving it to a another location, and a misogynist one at that, totally ruined it. Never mind there was zero plot.
I have loved the series and I absolutely love the first movie. I don’t think Carrie is a gold digger and I understood she forgave Big because she made the wedding all about her and never once included him in the details. It was obvious he wanted a courthouse wedding and she let the wedding get away from them both. Charlotte is the gold digger and the one I never liked because of that. There is lots to complain about the characters, yes, they are all very self-involved self-indulgent characters, but the show is fun and obviously a lot of people agreed with that since the series was very successful.
i saw the movie and i’m mad at michael patrick harris, too.
@ Tess, right on target.
I get not liking the series. I get not liking the movie. What I don’t get is the ANGER.
I also find the attacks based on age offensive. Women get older and still have sex! Gasp!
The world is not purely the realm of the young and fashionable. We middle aged women are allowed to exist in it too. And just because we dress fashionably and date, doesn’t mean we’re “traipsing around like we’re in our 20s.” Someday, you too will be 50 if you’re lucky, and you will want to go out in public, turkey neck or no.
Sex and the City.
Loved the series.
Liked the first movie.
Hated the second movie.
There was no City in the second movie. Dubai does NOT count as the “city”. Only NYC counts Hey its ok that the women are older….embrace it and go with it. Make them a little wiser too. Older & wiser can still be funnt–watch a few reruns of Designing Women or The Golden Girls for a few hints as to how.
A story line would have helped. The first movie had a story line and it worked. I read somewhere that SJP said the first movie was darker so they really wanted the second one to be light and funny. It was neither–just pathetic. The women were caricatures at best……..definitely not up to standard.
Maybe a 3rd movie will redeemm the franchise and it could go out in style. Because I hate to remember it with this thud and dud.
I saw the 2nd film with my mom, knowing full well the criticism that had bombarded it before we went. But I went with an open mind, hoping that there was still some lovable heart underneath it all.
I believe the aim with the whole “women go to Dubai and encounter a culture shock due to differences in law and what’s socially/sexually appropriate” was meant to be all liberating and whatnot, but SJP should have known from the script alone how utterly insulting, disgusting, crass, and awful the whole thing was.
The film screamed UGLY AMERICAN so loud my eardrums hurt. It was embarassing, and I felt embarassed for the people in the audience, involved with the film, in the middle east, EVERYWHERE. My mom and I were literally groaning and looking at each other in horror.
… The scene with Samantha and the purse full of condoms at the end where she screams like a sweating pig in heat at the middle eastern gentlemen made me sick. I truly hope no one sees this and believes it’s representative of real American women etc. Has no one ever heard of “when in Rome do as the Romans do”? It’s one thing to advocate for women’s rights, it’s completely another to brashly and grossly step all over respect for another culture.
Completely agree with you Kaiser. If she wants the praise she needs to accept the criticisim also.
So glad the 3rd movie is dead. We’ve had enough Sex & the City and I’ve never watched the show or movies. Still I have been over-exposed to the whole thing.
I’m mad at MPK and SJP both for taking what once was one of the most talked about and interesting shows on tv, and turning it into a national joke with these sh*tastic movies. For shame.
The show was great. The movies not so great. What tv shows that have been made into a movie have ever been fantastic?
Women threatned by The show or who say it demeans women need to lighten up & realize that was the point of the show. To live via fantasy – HELLO its TV. But im sure youre all watching Mad Men right because that show really does wonders for women =(
I don’t think I understand the comparison between Sex… and Mad Men. The latter takes place forty years ago and is meant to be similarly stylized. It’s not meant to be a representation of an all-encompassing fantasy camp, but for those for whom there is a degree of power or unearned comfort, a lot of time is spent detailing not only their personal failings but also the way that those failings at a macro and level fail others. It looks nice, but it’s not flattering or aspirational, which Sex and the City (in its fairy tale way) was supposed to be, I think. I’ve clearly seen more of one show than the other.
The movie doesn’t work because the biggest star of SATC isn’t Carrie, it’s New York City. They would have done better doing an SATC movie without SJP that at least took place in New York than they would have with that awful Dubai premise.
**SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER**
I’m sorry, but when the girls ducked around the corner wearing the burkas(sp?), I was cringing and my stomach turned. It was like when someone is giving a drunken toast at a wedding and you’re so embarrassed for them that you start to feel sick-ish.
the TV show was only OK… I wouldn’t waste money on a movie of this shit and #2’s are generally worse than the first. Plus… it was all about SJP! Barf!!!!
I liked the series, but haven’t seen either movie.
I was living in Dubai when the first one came out; it was banned there, so couldn’t see it and then it just fell off my radar once I moved. Saw the previews for the 2nd one and thought it looked awful + the idea of a holiday in that area of the middle east is ridiculous. If they’d set it in Beirut, they could have possibly made a fun and intelligent movie. And Beirut is a city with the ability to be a character in the same way that NYC was in the SATC series.
Also, the film is not set in Dubai, but it’s neighboring emirate, Abu Dhabi. Anyone who has ever been to Abu Dhabi only goes there because they work there or to see a concert at Emirates Palace. No one, not even most Arabs would ever consider a holiday in Abu Dhabi. AD is style-wise a beige throwback to the 1970s and not in a groovy retro sort of way. Plus, much more conservative socially from it’s neighboring emirate, Dubai. SATC has a rubbish travel agent, if it is booking Carrie et al a holiday there.
Also, though set in Abu Dhabi, most of the filming was apparently done in Morocco.
They were all trying to feed up how “hip” “trendy” and “cool” the franchise is when in reality it’s just really out-dated.
That sequel was just retarded and boring.
I agree with Katija
I was also embarrassed for them
Ditto @ jones & benny.
I’m a fan of the show, and the 1st movie was barely bearable. This second one, after reading the plot synopsis in the reviews, I didn’t want to go anywhere near. I can’t cringe for 2.5 hours, I’ll cramp up.
For insight into MPK, have a look at his guest spot on the Daily Show. He said he saw SATC2 as a wonderful fantasy for women in the middle of the recession to have the 4 go to the last place on earth where you can still shop like a mindless idiot and not feel like one. What it clearly was, was the last place he could take them, and have expensive clothes stand in for script, plot and credible character development. I don’t know if MPK hates women, but he certainly isn’t very interested in them, nor thinks very highly of them — onscreen or in the audience.
As to SJP, from the moment her name started appearing as ‘producer’ even on the TV show, Carrie ceased being a cynical, wise-cracking NY woman, and became a preening, shallow, self-obsessed git who shrieked and generally carried on like a toddler. This is why actors shouldn’t produce/write for themselves — they can’t see the character objectively; and instead just want the show to make them look “good” — in SJP’s case, she was clearly more interested in being a youthful style icon, than a wise woman one might aspire to be, who happened to have a good sense of style.
Anyway, they’re both fools, and capsized their money boat. I hope SJP’s latest hideous perfume goes down with it.
Mrs Odie 2 says: The world is not purely the realm of the young and fashionable. We middle aged women are allowed to exist in it too. And just because we dress fashionably and date, doesn’t mean we’re “traipsing around like we’re in our 20s.” Someday, you too will be 50 if you’re lucky, and you will want to go out in public, turkey neck or no.
If you lived in New Zealand I’d ask where and we’d go out and I’d buy you lunch and couple of drinks and a bottle of good wine for that damn comment! THANK YOU MA’AM…you just said a truthful mouthful!
Listen up chicas! I LIKE being over 40! I’m not dead, de-sexed/un-sexed (take your pic), my job, husband, sex life AND my kids kick ass, I do what I want, say what I want and am comfortable in my own skin! What’s not to like?
I was listening to a radio critic pan SATC a few weeks ago and it was music to my ears to hear him say that SJP looks like a boiled horse.
Lmao.aahh okay it did suck. SJp own the hot mess and move on.
I HATED this movie. I watch all kinds of crap but this took the cake for things that absolutly suck.
Some of my friends liked it though…
LOVED the show; not so much with the movie; haven’t even seen the 2nd one yet. Writing was a problem with the movies. Also, the American culture changed with the war; and attitudes about single women got a little “conservative” and this franchise took the brunt of it. The writing is still NOT AS BAD as most Hollywood movies. It’s time had ended. It was brilliant in its day.
this movie was so bad and the fashions seriously? who wears this crap? crazy old ladies? Sara Jessica parker shoud get some fat injections into her cheeks and face it and fix the nose lady! Mr. Big…awe he he he needs glasses 🙁
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