Sex and the City is the romantic comedy feature film adaptation of the HBO comedy series of the same name (itself based on the book of the same name by Candace Bushnell) about four female friends living in New York City. The series often portrayed blatant and questionable promiscuous behavior as well as frank discussions about romance and sexuality.

The world premiere took place at Leicester Square, London on 12 May 2008, and premiered on May 28, 2008 in the UK and May 30, 2008 in the US. The film is rated R in the United States and Malaysia, 18A in Canada, Category III in Hong Kong, M18 in Singapore, 15 in the United Kingdom, MA15+ in Australia, 12 in Germany and 11 in Norway.

Set four years after the events of "An American Girl in Paris, Part Deux", the film begins with Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) and Big (Chris Noth) viewing apartments with the intention of moving in together. Carrie falls in love with a penthouse suite far from their price range, but which Big immediately agrees to pay for. However, Carrie experiences doubts over the sensibility of this arrangement, explaining that they are not married, and as such she would have no legal rights to their home in the event of a separation. Quelling her fears, Big suggests that they get married.

Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) is finding balancing her home, work, and social life ever more difficult, and confesses to the girls that she hasn’t slept with Steve (David Eigenberg) in six months. She is devastated when Steve reveals he has slept with another woman, and immediately separates from him. Samantha (Kim Cattrall) is living with Smith (Jason Lewis), who has a successful television career. They live in a seaside beach house in Los Angeles, where Samantha is finding it difficult to take time for herself. She is traveling frequently between L.A. and New York, and grappling with her persistent desire for sex with other men; her handsome and sexually active next-door-neighbor, Dante, in particular. Charlotte (Kristin Davis) is happy in her marriage to Harry (Evan Handler), with their adopted Chinese daughter, Lily.

Carrie's wedding plans escalate into such a lavish event that Big begins to experience doubts. After an argument with Steve at the rehearsal dinner, Miranda tells Big bluntly that he and Carrie are crazy to be getting married, as marriage ruins everything. On the day of the ceremony, he decides he cannot go through with it, leaving Carrie devastated and fleeing from the New York Public Library, where their wedding was supposed to take place. Big, however, changes his mind and intercepts Carrie as he sees her limousine drive past. Carrie has already been left humiliated and betrayed, and proceeds to emotionally attack Big with her bouquet; screaming her dismay at him, while earning furious looks from Miranda and Charlotte. The four women subsequently take the honeymoon that Carrie had booked to Mexico, where they de-stress and collect themselves.

On her return to New York, Carrie hires an assistant, Louise (Jennifer Hudson), to help her move back into her old apartment and manage her administration. Miranda eventually confesses to Carrie about what happened during the night of the rehearsal dinner, and the two have a brief falling out. After reflecting on the argument she had with Carrie, Miranda agrees to attend couples counseling with Steve, and they are eventually able to reconcile. Samantha begins overeating to keep her from cheating on Smith with Dante, but eventually realizes that their relationship is simply not working, and that she needs to put herself first. The two break up, and she moves back to New York. Charlotte falls pregnant and is delighted, although for several months is concerned that something might happen to the baby, as her life seems to be too perfect.

A surprise encounter with Big at a restaurant leaves Charlotte so furious that she goes into labor. Big delivers her to the hospital, and waits until baby Rose is born, hoping to see Carrie. Harry passes on the message that Big would like her to call him, and that he has written to her frequently, but never received a reply. Carrie searches her correspondence, before realizing that Louise has kept his e-mails password-protected from her, after she earlier announced she wished to sever all communication with him. She finds that he has sent her dozens of letters copied from a book she showed him in the weeks before their wedding, Love Letters of Great Men, culminating with one of his own where he apologizes for screwing it up and promises to love her forever.

One hour before the locks are due to be changed on their shared penthouse apartment, Carrie travels to the home Big had bought for them to collect a pair of never-been-worn Manolo Blahnik shoes she had left there. She finds Big in the walk-in closet he had built for her, and the moment she sees him, her anger at his betrayal dissipates. She runs into his arms and they share a passionate kiss. After spending the final hour in their apartment together, talking and apologizing to one another, Big proposes to Carrie properly, using one of her shoes in place of a ring. They later marry alone, in a simple wedding in New York City Hall; Carrie dressed in the original dress she had bought in a vintage shop. They hold a get-together at a local diner with their friends. The film ends with the four women around a table in a restaurant, sipping cosmopolitans, and celebrating Samantha's fiftieth birthday, with Carrie making a toast to the next fifty.

At the end of Sex and the City's run in February 2004, there were indications of a movie being considered following the series. HBO announced that Michael Patrick King was working on a possible script for the movie which he would direct. However, later that year, Kim Cattrall declined to work on the project citing reasons that the script and the start date were overly prolonged and she decided to take other offers at hand. Other reports indicated that Cattrall requested script approval due to delay in the film and also requested that she should receive a salary on par with Parker. As a result, the immediate follow-up idea for the movie were dropped.

It was in mid-2007 that the plans for making the movie were announced again. This reportedly resulted after Cattrall's conditions being accepted along with a future HBO series. However, in May 2007 the project was halted after HBO decided it was no longer in a position to finance the movie on its own. The project was pitched within the Time Warner family (owners of HBO) and was picked by sister concern New Line Cinema.

The film was prominently shot in New York between September-December 2007. The locations included a number of places around Manhattan and a certain portion was shot in Steiner Studios and Silvercup Studios. The shooting was continually interrupted by paparazzi and onlookers with the security and police authorities employed in order to control the crowd. Efforts were taken in order to keep the plot of the film in secrecy, including shooting multiple endings. As a defense strategy, scenes shot in public or in presence of number of extras were termed by Michael Patrick King and the main cast as "dream sequences".

As in the TV series, fashion played a significant role in plot and production of the movie. Over 300 ensembles were used over the course of entire film. Patricia Field, who created costume designs for the series, also undertook the job in the film. However, Field has stated that she initially was ambivalent to do the film, for monetary and creative reasons. Field rose to fame particularly after designing for the series from 1999 to 2004, wherein she popularized the concept of using designer clothes with day-to-day fashion.

While dressing the characters for the film, Field decided to stay clear from the latest fashion trends defining the characters and instead focused on the evolution of individual character and the actor portraying it, over the last four years. While Samantha's dressing was influenced by American TV soap opera Dynasty, Jackie Kennedy was the inspiration for Charlotte's clothes. Miranda, according to Field, has evolved the most from the series in terms of fashion. This was influenced significantly by development in actress Cynthia Nixon in past years.

Iconic fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, whose looks were featured in the film, has stated that she was unhappy with the styling in the movie, criticizing it as "quite dull", and walked out of the premiere after ten minutes.

The film's soundtrack debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200, the highest debut for a multi-artist theatrical film soundtrack since 2005's Get Rich or Die Tryin' and debuting at #6 on the UK Albums Chart, selling to date more than 40,000 copies.

The soundtrack was released May 27, 2008 by New Line Records. The soundtrack includes new songs by Fergie and Jennifer Hudson (who plays Carrie's assistant in the film).

The film's international premiere took place on Monday, May 12, 2008 at Odeon West End in London's Leicester Square to the audience of 1700. It was next premiered at Sony Center at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin on May 15. The film had its New York City premiere at Radio City Music Hall on Tuesday, May 27, 2008.

The film experienced commercial success, grossing $136,362,074 as domestic sales and a total of $341,572,414 worldwide as of July 5, 2008. Opening in 3,285 theaters, the film made $26.93 million domestically on its first day. The three-day opening weekend total was $57,038,404, aggregating $17,363 per theater. The film recorded biggest opening ever for a romantic comedy. Overseas, the film has grossed $37,214,577 in its first week of release, bringing the worldwide opening total to $94,062,633. As of June 22, 2008, the film has grossed $171,736,987 in foreign box office.

The film received mixed reviews from critics. As of July 5, 2008, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 51% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 162 reviews — with the consensus that "Sex and the City loses steam in the transition to the big screen, but will still thrill fans of the show." Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 53 out of 100, based on 38 reviews.

Brian Lowry of Variety said the film "..feels a trifle half-hearted", while Carina Chocano of the Los Angeles Times stated "[the film] tackles weighty issues with grace but is still very funny". She praised Michael Patrick King's work saying very few movies "are willing to go to such dark places while remaining a comedy in the Shakespearean sense". Colin Bertram of the New York Daily News dubbed the film a "great reunion", and was happy with the return of "The 'Oh, my God, they did not just do that!' moments, the nudity, the swearing, the unabashed love of human frailty and downright wackiness". The Chicago Tribune's Jessica Reeves described it as "Witty, effervescent and unexpectedly thoughtful." Michael Rechtshaffen at The Hollywood Reporter praised the performances of the four leading ladies and said the film kept the essence of the series, but resembled a super-sized episode.

Manohla Dargis of The New York Times found the film "a vulgar, shrill, deeply shallow — and, at 2 hours and 22 turgid minutes, overlong — addendum to a show", while The Daily Telegraph's Sukhdev Sandhu panned the film saying "[the ladies] have become frozen, Spice Girls-style types - angsty, neurotic, predatory, princess - rather than individuals who might evolve or surprise us". Rick Groen of The Globe and Mail slammed the film commenting on lack of script and adding that the characters "don't perform so much as parade, fixed in their roles as semi-animated clothes hangers on a cinematic runway". He gave the film zero stars out of four. Anthony Lane, a film critic for The New Yorker since 1993, called the film a "superannuated fantasy posing as a slice of modern life"; he noted that "almost sixty years after All About Eve, which also featured four major female roles, there is a deep sadness in the sight of Carrie and friends defining themselves not as Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, Celeste Holm, and Thelma Ritter did—by their talents, their hats, and the swordplay of their wits—but purely by their ability to snare and keep a man....All the film lacks is a subtitle: "The Lying, the Bitch, and the Wardrobe."