Indiana Jones will get a run for his money from Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte as the ladies of Sex and the City: The Movie look to lure women to theaters Friday, and dethrone the current box-office champ.

The romantic comedy based on the popular HBO series, which ended in 2004, opens on 547 screens in Canada through Alliance Films, while New Line Cinema bows Sex on a further 3,100 screens in the U.S.

Though the film runs long at two hours and 15 minutes, the response to screenings has been ‘uniformly outstanding,’ says Alliance executive managing director Michael Rudnitsky.

‘We’re not getting too many complaints that it’s too long — I think people who are fans want to see everything they can see,’ he tells Playback Daily.

The film follows the romances and relationships of four Manhattan friends, played by Sarah Jessica Parker, Canuck Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon, while Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls) fills the role of Carrie’s bubbly assistant Louise.

Rudnitsky says the film arrives with ‘tremendous’ awareness, due to a mega-promotional campaign.

‘It’s as high as any film can get…it should be one of the largest releases of the year,’ he says, noting that the initial audience for Sex will be heavily female, though the exhibitor is hoping husbands and boyfriends will see the film as well.

Alliance is also opening the thriller The Strangers, starring Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman, on 203 screens across Canada. It follows a couple whose remote getaway becomes a nightmare when masked strangers enter the picture.

Meanwhile, Mongrel Media is bowing Benson Lee’s documentary Planet B-Boy, about the world of competitive breakdancing, at Toronto’s Royal and Vancouver’s Tinseltown theaters, while Maximum Films is opening the dramedy Mister Lonely at Toronto’s Cumberland.