Arriving with fanfare that may have rivaled The Beatles first voyage to the U.S., the fabulous foursome of “Sex and the City” landed on the big screen this past weekend, bringing enough Louis Vuitton handbags to fill a Lexus dealership several times over.

It’s a thoroughly American homage to romance and consumption, girlfriend-style.

For the uninitiated, “Sex and the City” revives the characters from the wildly popular HBO TV series, led by our heroine and plucky writer Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker).

With its big screen appearance, the movie has been a glamorous affair. A pink carpet opening last week drew showbiz creatures as diverse as Ashley Olsen, Lorraine Bracco, Edie Falco, not to mention the elegant cast members themselves.

For its first weekend, “Sex and the City” reportedly lured in more than $55 million, nearly earning its estimated $65 million budget back in the first few days of release.

Obviously, “Sex” sells as much as it creates a buzz. And though new episodes haven’t appeared in four years, the fans are no less in love with the characters.

As a cable TV show, “Sex and the City” had the freedom to push some boundaries, and the film medium allows that same latitude, much to the delight of fans who will likely see the two-hour-plus runtime as a series of episodes stitched together quite nicely.

Given the racy, absurd and ironic humor of much television these days—particularly on cable—“Sex and the City” may not seem as cutting edge as it did when it first sprang in 1998. But the cast has such winsome chemistry that it still has charm to spare.

In the film, Carrie and her upwardly mobile cohorts Kristin Davis (Charlotte York), Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon), and Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall) are back together in various stages of love or lust or a romantic purgatory somewhere in between.

Like the series, the movie is filled with sitcom-worthy bon mots and a racy sexiness. Also like the series, the frame of the story here (a writer tells tale about lessons she and her friends learn) ensures it’s really a story about women bonding (and their saucy verbal jousting) outside of male-muddled society.

Men, of course, figure largely, but it’s unmistakable that the core friendships involve women. Men are around to fulfill dreams, frustrate or be amusements. Men can come and go, but it’s the faithfulness of female friends that creates meaning and social order for these women.

Not to give away the ending, but it’s done in such a way as to suggest women are the real social glue of the world and these women, in particular, represent “everywomen”—or at least modern women in the big city.

Therein rests its appeal. When all’s said and done, it’s a woman-powered buddy flick.

It’s there, and with its lessons about bonding between women and being true to that friendship, that the film actually gains its semblance of substance, however shallow and fashionable the foundation.