Men Always Win, Even When Women Beat Them

Diverse opinions on how the new Sex and the City film fits into today's culture are causing a furore, but I've got a different bone to pick here, and it has to do with the British media and their response to the British box office. As in America, the fourth Indiana Jones film opened here on May 22nd, and the Sex and the City film followed a week later. But while reports of the box-office results in the U.S. are all 'surprise: women do go to the cinema!', the UK media seem to be playing a very odd trick. What do headlines like 'Sex fails to match Indiana in the UK' and 'Sex and the City? We'd rather take a trip with Indiana Jones' suggest to you? Because when I first read them, I assumed that Indiana had held onto the top spot and the New Yorkers had taken second place. But no. If you can work around the bizarre narrative of the articles, you'll discover that this week's box-office champ was actually Sex and the City, which grossed about £8.7 million to Indiana's £5.5 million (figures here).

So why are these articles so focused on the fact that Sex and the City's opening weekend doesn't match Indiana Jones' opening £12 million? Why does it matter so much? Quite frankly I think it's quite amazing that a film based on an American television show that surely can't have had that large an audience (Channel 4 is less widely watched than other channels, and American imports, much as I love them, aren't generally watched by too many people) has made so much money. Seriously, £8.7 million is a huge haul, and I hardly think it's fair to compare it to a big action-adventure family franchise comeback. The two films are completely different, appealing to completely different audiences- and aren't some of Sex's audience going to be the ones dragged along by partner/children to see Indiana as opposed to the other way around?- and such a comparison is, quite frankly, ludicrous. Both have been hugely successful- so why slam one's success?

p.s. Apologies for the horrifically rudimentary graphic. I only have Paint, but isn't it more exciting than just the posters?

Everyone Wins!

So, it's ten to two in the morning and I've just come through a problematic viewing (DVD + laptop = disaster) of Fatal Attraction (um... oh, my) and I come online to this rather wonderful news:

Winslet expected to replace Kidman in "The Reader"

Now, I know that's Yahoo! but they did cite her publicist so I'm trusting it. And this makes me very excited. For, much as I love Nicole, seeing my dearest Kate in a film I'm really looking forward to (it's in my still-drafting Most Anticipated list) just makes me alight with happiness. Last year was Winslet-free after her rather awful glut of films at the end of 2006 (when the best of your films is The Holiday, you know you're in trouble), so I'm really ready to see her back on-form with both The Reader and the highly anticipated Revolutionary Road. I almost feel like popping in Sense and Sensibility in joyous celebration. But I won't.

Sim Survivor

Now, I'm sure y'all have heard that some company have acquired the rights to make a movie out of The Sims (and if you haven't, well, I'm telling ya). If they got the right people on this, it could be genius. It could be some kind of metaphysical mind-fuck about how people are controlled by an unknown force from the sky (gee, now doesn't that sound familiar?). It could have all sorts of metaphorical religious undertones. It could also be a superb dissection of human (well, Simmish, I suppose) interaction- "why are you falling asleep in the middle of the floor?"; "why do we keep 'woohooing' even though you're my mailman?"; "why do you keep talking about aeroplanes?". My god, if they got the right people on this, it could be AMAZING. Like, have that green diamond thing hovering over a Sim's head and watch them trying to ignore it while everyone else whispers about how they're the "chosen one" (I know they don't do that in the game, I'm improvising here!). Watch what happens when you put seven wildly different Sims in a room and then take away the door. Have the grim reaper turn up to take a relative and end up with him becoming the new husband. See the spawn of human and alien take on university. It could be wicked.

What's that? "...has set project up with Fox-based John Davis... Davis' most recent projects include "Norbit," "When A Stranger Calls," and "Eragon.""... "Brian Lynch will script; story is under wraps with talent yet to be named... Lynch scripted and helmed upcoming "Big Helium Dog," and penned "Scary Movie 3,""?

Oh, fuck it. This is going to be a disaster. I bet it won't even be in Simlish, because god knows these people aren't going to risk filming it in a foreign language.