The cinematic events which apparently heralded this sea change were Sex and the City: the Movie, Twilight, and Mamma Mia. In other words, women had promiscuous sex, had sex in the city, and didn't have sex with vampires, and amidst financial turmoil and political change, we ate it up.

However, all this is positively Bergman-esque compared to 2009's distaff-themed offerings. Says the FT,

This year women will be targeted even more precisely. One sub-sub-genre to emerge is feature films adapted from self-help books, notably French Women Don't Get Fat, which instructs women they can stay slim while still scoffing the air in the éclair choux pastry, and He's Just Not that Into You , which proffers advice such as that if a man runs away from a woman he is not in love with her.

The article quotes one feminist's dismayed response to this trend: "Self-help books send out the message women need to improve themselves instead of being happy with who they are." Well, that seems a tad unfair. For one thing, as self-help books go, these two are fairly common-sensical: both were remarkably short of psychco-babble and long on clearing up misconceptions, albeit obvious ones. There's a reason these books were such runaway bestsellers that they caught Hollywood's roving eye, and it's more than just numbers. Self-help offends people by its lack of artifice, its vulgarity, but chick lit and women's fiction hews to a similar formula of control-wresting and triumph. After all, a film like Sex and the City or Mamma Mia is no more virtuous for wrapping its self-help cliche's in shoes and ABBA; the self-help films will simply make no bones about it. The irony is, the end result will probably not be too different from what Hollywood's already turning out.

However, it will be interesting to note whether the stigmas of self-help carry over to its cinemazation. After all, a woman who can justify seeing Sex and the City for a laugh or Twilight in the name of cultural anthropology - no small class of women, I'd wager - might have a harder time pulling the trigger for French Women Don't Get Fat in widescreen. We like to be silly, not to feel stupid. Whether or not one finds the self-help film trend dismaying in itself, one can't deny that the "woman/smart " divide is being made nakedly stark. In removing all the artifice from what have essentially been self-help movies all along, Hollywood's ironically respecting our intelligence. And I wonder if that might not, also ironically, result in a backlash of denial - not the kind of escapism anyone wants.

Year of Women [FT]

"Grand Mamma Mia! I like it! I'm up for doing a sequel, as long as you can get those fabulous boys - Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgard and Dominic Cooper - back!"

"It's so gratifying that it has been this phenomenon around the world. It says there's an audience for something that appeals to a lot of women - something that might make them some money too!"

As happy as we are that Streep is back on top, the idea of a Mamma Mia sequel — let alone one that's limited to the roughly four ABBA songs left untouched by the original film — feels like it could be her Waterloo. Let's not subject poor Pierce Brosnan (or America) to a poorly warbled, shirtless rendition of "When I Kissed The Teacher."

• Meryl Streep enjoys the ride back up [LAT]

• Meryl Streep Wants Mama Mia Sequel Role [Female First]

The sing-a-long edition makes it easier — and in fact encourages audience members — to sing along with the characters, and their fellow audience members, in effect contrasting those pre-show public service announcements scolding that silence is golden. The lyrics to the songs are displayed in bright, colorful letters at the bottom of the screen.

At a preview screening of the sing-a-long edition earlier this week — probably apropos to nothing, the same night Hillary Clinton gave her speech at the Democratic National Convention — a crowd of mostly women, many around age 50, seemed tentative at first to give it their all, but relaxed and seemed a little more comfortable with the concept toward the end of the screening. If they had sold shots of ouzo at the concession stand, that might have helped, quite frankly.

Hence the rumored, BYOB Mamma Mia! The Drink-Along Version planned for re-re-release some time this fall, with viewers receiving limited-edition shot glasses and instructions for concocting the deliciously fruity (if slightly bitter) new cocktail "The Brosnan." Or maybe that one's just better suited for DVD.

• With this 'Mamma Mia,' you can sing, if you dare [NC Times]

1. The Dark Knight - $155.34 million $158.3 million
We apologize for the wraparound glitch currently affecting our The Dark Knight Opening Weekend Take Billboardtron, as the outmoded technology that runs it was barely capable of handling the $151.1 million record previously held by Spider-Man 3—now, nothing but a vaguely arachnoid splat on the pavement, smooshed beyond recognition by the monster tires of a revving Bat-Hog.

For those who were lucky enough to catch one of the completely sold-out IMAX screenings across the country, or even those who had to endure a regular theater showing—bitterly conscious of the fact that its grim, cobalt nihilism was only fully appreciable in 1.43:1 aspect ratio on a screen the size of a Hoover Dam—it's now merely a matter of letting the film's deep messages about the Current State of the World (we're not exactly sure what they are—but boy are they bleak!) sink in. For everyone else, we suggest merely plugging your ears and shouting, "NO DARK KNIGHT SPOILERS!!!" at no one in particular until that snooty operator at The Bridge Cinemas says something besides, "I'm sorry, monsieur, but we can't possibly squeeze you in until mid-September, and even then, it's on a 27-inch LCD TV temporarily set up in the manager's office. Can I put you down for two?"

BREAKING: The Biggest, Battiest Opening Weekend Ever Ever™ is actually bigger than was previously estimated: Variety is now reporting Chris Nolan's movie took in $158.3 million.

2. Mamma Mia! - $27.605 million
While that number seems like a blip on the bat-sonar by comparison, the weekend's frothier option—a movie of the hit ABBA musical starring Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried, and the strange sounds coming out of Pierce Brosnan's larynx—had a solid showing that managed to break a record of its own: beating Hairspray for biggest opening weekend for a musical. While the big screen version veered slightly off from the source material—it turns out her daughter was sired by none of the three potential ex-flames, but was conceived immaculately by God himself—it does set up the holiday sequel, Xmas Mia!, quite nicely.

3. Hancock - $14 million
Realizing they'd have to turn away thousands at the DK doors, clever theater owners pushed Hancock as a viable superhero movie alternative, posting quotes from P. Diddy's glowing review of the Will Smith hit—"FUCK BATMAN, SUPERMAN, ROBIN WITH HIS BITCHASS, UNDERDOG AND THE MUTT MOTHERFUCKER. HANCOCK BITCHES. HANCOCK" on standees by the ticket counter.

5. Hellboy II: The Golden Army - $10,038,000
Tumbling 71% to fifth-place in its second week, the superhero proved no match for his utility-belted counterpart; more humiliation was to come when Borat trotted up to him and accused the nether-worldly creature with the filed-down devil horns of being nothing more than a mischief-making Jew in disguise.

7. Space Chimps - $7.3 million
Wall-E's inbred, simian cousins floundered at the box office, a largely indifferent public sentencing them to be hurtled off into oblivion, banging helplessly on the glass-paneled prison of their spacefaring-monkey Phantom Zone.

• WEEKEND BOX OFFICE July 18-20, 2008 [Box Office Mojo]

Not that "gay Batman'' isn't redundant. We've had our suspicions about the Dark Knight's proclivities since the heyday of Fredric Wertham. The latest iteration keeps Robin locked away in Batman's closet (who do you think is, ahem, redecorating Wayne Manor?) and Katie Holmes isn't around doing beard duty this time. But you'd have be in pretty deep denial not to pick up on the homoerotic hints. "You complete me,'' the Joker coos to the Dark Knight. ...

Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne does a lot of eyelash batting at his gushing new BFF Harvey ("you sure know how to throw a party!'') Dent, even teasing Harvey about his after-hours activities: "ballet?'' (Somewhere, Adam West is smiling). Why is the mayor of Gotham City wearing so much eyeliner? And who are we kidding, aren't Alfred and Lucius clearly a pair of old queens fussing over dressing up their leather-clad protege? Holy Aunt Harriet! Mamma Mia! is no less gay, but at least it's more or less out and proud. What do you think?

We think you're full of shit, actually, but we appreciate the effort! Next up: Space Chimps as homoerotic experimentation fantasy. Discuss! Or... not.

• Which is Gayer, 'Dark Knight' or 'Mamma Mia!' ? It's Pretty Close [NYP]

WHAT'S NEW: Look, what more can we say about The Dark Knight? It's terrifically well-made, it's tracking hotter than train on fire and even Terry Gilliam backslid his way into publicizing it. All that matters anymore are the numbers: Warners is unloading this thing on more than 9,000 screens worldwide, including 4,366 in the US. That's a record, reports Variety, though word on the street is that its 152-minute running time and multiplex competition will keep it from breaking Spider-Man 3's record $151 million opening last year. We're not so sure; $145 million isn't out of the question, especially with IMAX screenings sold out literally everywhere and overflow heading into neighboring theaters.

Universal, meanwhile, has exactly the thing for the Batman-o-phobic moviegoer in Mamma Mia!, the Meryl Streep-starring adaptation of the hit ABBA stage musical. We'd rather chew off our tongues than sit through this, but that doesn't mean it couldn't turn around a nice $32 million or so as pretty much the only escape from DK fever. Also opening: Not much, really, with the all-access doc A Very British Gangster and the Kilmer/Dorff prison drama Felon bringing up the art-house rear.

THE BIG LOSER: With Meet Dave presumably a top-10 goner, Fox faces its second consecutive hurdle this week with Space Chimps. This isn't necessarily a "loser," though, looking at roughly $9 million from the families too young for the decidedly dark Knight en route to its DVD/cable future. Call us optimists, but everyone might pretty much get what they want this weekend.

THE UNDERDOG: We recommend Lou Reed's Berlin with a slight reservation: We haven't seen it. But! We did attend the concerts at which Julian Schnabel filmed Reed's live revival of his 1973 masterpiece — a feel-bad epic of drugs, domestic abuse and suicide that makes The Dark Knight look like Batman and Robin. We can vouch for the cinematic quality of the music itself, brought storming from the dead by producer Bob Ezrin and accompanied by vocalist Antony and original, astounding session guitarist Steve Wagner. It took Reed years to reclaim this form (if he did at all; it's debatable), and to catch it through Schnabel's lens, itself at the top of its craft... Well, that doesn't even seem fair.

FOR SHUT-INS: This week's new DVD's include the crackling, commendable Jason Statham heist flick The Bank Job; the Oscar-short-lister Brazilian coming-of-ager The Year My Parents Went on Vacation; the B-thriller Asylum ("From the director of Final Destination 2"!); and for you Emmy-season latecomers, the first season of Holly Hunter's TNT drama Saving Grace.

So, how's the line for Dark Knight? Are are you Team ABBA this weekend? Maybe catching up a bit on your Statham canon? We can't say we blame you. Tell us any best-kept secrets we might have missed!

Even at our pre-teen peak point of flexibility, we couldn't pull this off a move like this on our trampoline. And somehow, we imagine that even after hitting the gym hard for the next few months, we can't see ourselves be able to do this move today, let alone at age 58. Meryl, you have always been, and will always remain, our hero.

[Photo credit: Peter Mountain via Daily Mail]

• MAMMA MIA! MERYL STREEP DOES MID-AIR SPLITS AT NEARLY 60 IN SCENES FOR NEW MOVIE [Daily Mail]

While we respect the near-seismic impact of the film's Broadway source material and its iconic star, we're especially interested in the backloaded allusions to Streep's character's licentious past. By "allusions," we mean her half-hearted denial of "sleeping with hundreds of men," or her friends' cheeky amusement at her charming history of looseness, or her spread legs in the foreground of a shot featuring the panty-melting trifecta of Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard. Additionally, the accompanying melodic drone isn't even ABBA, but rather something akin to American Idol ABBA, one degree and two volume notches removed from tuneless cruise-ship ignominy. Are we the only ones missing the discriminating taste (or at least the genetic coding) required to think this was a good idea?

• Mamma Mia! [Universal]