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Sex in the City on a recessionary break

Marketplace Staff May 21, 2010
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Sex in the City on a recessionary break

Marketplace Staff May 21, 2010
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Kai Ryssdal: Those who pay attention to advertising and movies and advertising related to movies will surely have seen the zillions of ads for “Sex and the City 2” that opens next weekend. There will be long lines of mostly women eager to catch up on Carrie and the girls and what they’re wearing.

Marketplace’s Eve Troeh reports that retailers are just as eager for those fans to use this weekend for a little or a lot of pre-opening shopping.


EVE TROEH: We last saw Carrie Bradshaw and Company on the big screen in May 2008 — mere months before the economy collapsed.

The new movie acknowledges the recession: Carrie and Big have moved 12 floors down from their penthouse, but it quickly moves on.

SEX AND THE CITY MOVIE: I think we need some glamour. One week in Abu Dhabi, all expenses paid for all four of us, get outta town, my point exactly. I can hear the decadence calling.

Sex and the City writer Michael Patrick King says the girls needed a break. And, so do we.

MICHAEL PATRICK KING: Everybody was sort of pulling it all in and I thought, OK, my job is to go the other way.

That means letting it all out. Word is the clothes in the film are worth $10 million. In one desert scene, each girl gets three costume changes.

Retail analyst Candace Corlett says Sex and the City’s effect on retail sales is no mirage. She remembers the long lines of would-be Carries for the first film.

CANDACE CORLETT: High, high heels, lots of rhinestones. I was wishing I’d thought to do it myself.

Corlett says retailers didn’t anticipate the demand then, but they’re not going to miss out now. And neither are the fans.

CORLETT: You know it’s a $10 movie ticket and a new dress, and people are looking for permission to buy.

And stores are granting it. Macy’s partnered with the film for a “girl’s weekend” of sweepstakes and giveaways. Corlett says other stores have plenty of clutches and cocktail dresses on display, and on sale.

In Los Angeles, I’m Eve Troeh for Marketplace.

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