"Magic Mike," a new Channing Tatum movie about male strippers in Tampa, opened in theaters Friday.

Tatum — himself a Tampa Catholic High School graduate — assured TBO.com that the film is not about his own real-life experiences as a stripper in (where else?) Tampa.

Tatum worked for eight months at a club called Joy that later shut down. .

He told TBO.com:

Look, I'll just be really, really, honest; the only thing that is really me, the only factual truths, I was 18 when I went into this thing (stripping)," Tatum said in Miami last week. "I dropped out of college, I played football and I had a sister.

"And the rest of it is completely made up."

At the same time, he said in a Tampa Bay Times story and in other national media interviews that his tenure as a Tampa stripper definitely was the inspiration for this movie:

"This is just me growing up in Tampa, loving it . . . an 18-year-old kid thrown in with these crazy men who had been stripping for a long time, kind of losing themselves. I probably lost myself for a little while."

The movie co-stars Matthew McConaughey and Alex Pettyfer, who also play roles as male strippers. The plot revolves around Magic Mike, a veteran male dancer, teaching a new dancer the secrets of making money in the trade.

Parts of the film were made on Sunset Beach and other areas around Tampa Bay.

Currently, the movie holds an aggregate review of 82 percent from critics and 83 percent from audiences on Rottentomatoes.com.

Theaters around the area are playing the film, and you can find showtimes here.

Now that the movie is out in theaters, share your thoughts.

How do you feel about a film based in Tampa about the strip club scene?

Are you planning to see the movie because you're a Tatum fan, you want to see the local scenes on the big screen — or both?