Two HBO comedies, each about a group of four core friends trying to succeed in life and love. One centers on men in Los Angeles, the other features women in New York. They both have huge fanbases and nearly 100 episodes, racking up similar accolades and awards along the way.
Yet when it came to movie versions (both even released in the same time frame at the beginning of summer movie season), the two series took very different paths: The Entourage movie, which opened, is largely considered a flop: It took in a little more than $18 million over five days, opening at No. 4 at the box office. Meanwhile, back in May 2008, Sex and the City made an impressive $57 million haul in its opening weekend, easily becoming No. 1. The movie went on to become a giant success, raking in $415 million worldwide, and spawned a much-derided sequel that made $228 million overall.
Why did seemingly parallel journeys diverge at the critical moment of making a film adaptation? It's highly unlikely that reviews were a factor: Although most critics hated the Entourage adaptation, they weren't exactly thrilled by the Sex and the City one either. So we offer three potential reasons for the lopsided results:
1. Sex and the City always had more viewers
This is probably the most obvious: While Entourage debuted to about 2 million people, Sex and the City was already averaging around 6 million viewers a week. That pattern held true throughout the whole series: Approximately 10 million fans tuned in to catch Carrie Bradshaw say goodbye in February 2004. But when Vincent Chase and the gang bid farewell in September 2011, only 3 million people watched (and that included a later repeat the same night).
