With a box-office gross of just under $40 million in 2005, "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" hardly seemed likely to spawn a sequel. The film was about the robust friendship between four teenage girls who kept in touch with each other by passing around a pair of blue jeans that magically fit them all. The pants, well-known from a best-selling book series, took precedence in the film's marketing over the quartet of bright-eyed but mostly unknown stars.

On Wednesday, three years later, "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2" arrives in theaters -- and this time, the girls are getting top billing over the jeans, thanks to their collective success since the original film first appeared. WSJ

Comment on this Bastardly entry »