Anatomy of a Hit Movie: SEX AND THE CITY

My last post covered Warner's staggering losses on Speed Racer, but before getting up to "speed" on some new releases, I thought I'd briefly cover New Line/Warner's fantastic grosses on Sex and The City. Why the industry thought this movie might not open so strongly is a mystery (all they needed to do was check the residuals from the series to know that it had a fan base as big as Iron Man). In any case, here are the numbers, and a great case study on how to make money from a movie:

PRODUCTION BUDGET:
A low-ish 65 million.

MARKETING BUDGET:
A super low 35 million, mostly because Sex and the City had more than quintuple the amount of product placement as Speed Racer. Of course not all of the companies directly paid money to New Line/Warners--some of these promotional partnerships just resulted in free ads and publicity.

DOMESTIC GROSS:
As of June 3, the US gross is 68,056,238.

FOREIGN GROSS:
Way above expectations here. As of June 3, the foreign gross stands at 37,517,392.

TOTAL GROSS:
As of June 3, the total gross is 105,573,630. The projected worldwide theatrical gross is between 200 and 250 million.

PROFITS:
This means that in its theatrical window, the film will probably make a net profit of over $100 million dollars, at the very least. Compare that to Speed's possible $240 million loss! And this was always a picture that the studio thought would find its real profits in the ancillary markets. Obviously Sex and the City will be a major hit on DVD, etc, and inevitably spawn a sequel. It's good to see New Line have a hit... too bad New Line has been dismantled, most of its employees fired, and the rest absorbed into Warners.