Sideshow: 'Sex' sells, raking in $55.7 million to start

Sarah Jessica Parker

and her gal pals still have it.

The big-screen Sex and the City - reuniting Parker and TV costars Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon - strutted to a $55.7 million opening weekend, nearly doubling the $30 million that Warner Bros. expected.

"There were women that came in and bought out entire theaters in advance and invited all their friends," Warner Bros.' Dan Fellman said of Friday's turnout, which was 85 percent women.

The sequel to the six-year HBO series had the best debut for an R-rated comedy, topping the $45.1 million opening of American Pie 2. And it landed at No. 5 on the all-time list among R-rated films, behind The Matrix Reloaded ($91.8 million), The Passion of the Christ ($83.8 million), 300 ($70.9 million) and Hannibal ($58 million).

Sex and the City pushed Paramount's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull to second place, with $46 million in its second weekend. Indiana Jones raised its 11-day domestic total to $216.9 million.

The weekend's other new wide release, Universal's fright flick The Strangers, debuted at No. 3 with $20.7 million. It stars Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman as a couple terrorized by masked invaders at their vacation home.

MTV Movie Awards

Transformers was the best-movie winner at the 2008 MTV Movie Awards. Last summer's robots-in-disguise blockbuster took the top honor last night. The ceremony was held at the Gibson Amphitheatre, only a couple of hundred yards uphill from the inferno that ripped through the adjacent Universal Studios lot earlier in the day in Universal City, Calif.

Johnny Depp won twice, and got the biggest ovations of the night while shyly accepting awards for best comedic performance and best villain. Tom Cruise presented Adam Sandler with the Generation Award, the show's highest honor.

Newly wed

Charlie Sheen and Brooke Mueller created a stir at the exclusive Butterfly Ball benefiting Chrysalis on Saturday night, making their first public appearance as husband and wife. The Two and a Half Men star and real estate developer wed Friday night.