Melissa Silverstein has a fabulous site that follows the ups and downs and ins and outs of the movie biz and how women fit into the mix. Her blog, Women and Hollywood, gives a "feminist perspective" on the Hollywood scene - with commentary well worth your time.

This week she has "A Woman's Cultural Moment" there and here's some of what she says,

"Whatever your thoughts are on the actual content of Sex and the City, as a follower of movies about women I can't help but acknowledge that this is a cultural watershed moment for women's films for a couple of reasons.

1. Everyone (who talks about movies) has spent the last couple of weeks talking about a film that stars and celebrates women and women's friendships. Indiana Jones is so yesterday's news one week after being released after an almost 20 YEAR WAIT!
2. Everyone (who talks about movies) is scratching their heads trying to figure out how much money an R rated movie targeted at adult women can make. Imagine women preoccupying the minds of Hollywood's men.
3. The male misogynists in the film blogosphere have outed themselves in a big way with their extreme nastiness about the film with one actually calling the film a Taliban recruitment film.
4. This film has sold out almost 400 shows for this weekend.

I wish I could reprint the entire post here...Melissa has really thought this out (that's what she does, though...she follows the movies and where women fit in and I really think you should read more of her blog)...but I want you to go to her blog and read the post. I do not agree with her on SJP's acting abilities, but... I do agree with Harry Medved of Fandango, as noted in Melissa's post, that, "It's unusual for a female driven movie to inspire so much fan anticipation. You would usually associate sold out shows with a comic book movie or a sequel to a summer tentpole. Clearly there is an audience for adult female driven pictures and we are hoping that Hollywood will make more of them. We haven't seen anything like this before."

The folks who make Sex and the City know how to market to women. I thought I was the only woman on the planet that could not care less about it, that previously was apalled by it, and that...will likely not see the movie until I found Sirens. Now I feel vindicated (even though the majority of commenters were against her take on the whole thing...)

Regardless of that, what are the marketers here doing right? What buttons are they pushing? What's behind the Sex and the City adoration?

I know. But, I'm not telling because...you should study this phenomena and figure it out. It will serve you well.