They could only wish

If it were as simple as "sex sells," everyone would be able to sell sex. Willa Ford sold sex, but she never had a hit. Britney and Christina both adopted sexual images in 2001-02 and their singles flopped. PCD were known for being a ****ty group, but people enjoyed their songs, which is why they had so many hits. The GP liked them and considering their streaming to this day, people still remember their songs.

Comparing 5H to individual members of PCD doesn't make any sense. They're groups and 5H has not come close to PCD. Not even close. As for Camila getting tabloid attention, that's because she's been linked to Shawn Mendes and other teen male stars. Nicole never dated anyone famous and never did anything controversial. The most gossip coverage she had was nonsense about her being a tyrant to the other PCD members, which wasn't even true.

It's definitely a posibility if they continue releasing strong singles.

With the sales climate being so different now, I doubt it. PCD achieved their sucess in a short time then went kaput after only two albums. Hell, they barely made it to the second album because Nicole thought she was gonna be a huge solo act and jumped the gun early, like an idiot. Her album got shelved and she went back to PCD. When I Grow Up was a hit but it was evident they had lost momentum. If 5H's dynamic is anything like what it appears to be they won't be together long enough to sell as many records as PCD.

I also feel they won't because there's kind of a curse on American girl groups ever since DC became famous. Notice how post-Destiny's Child, not one girl group has made it past a second album. I call it the Beyoncé Syndrome. Labels and marketing teams are too focused on trying to create faux drama and tension to force a Beyoncé from the group and they fail time and time again because it is forced. Even with the drama DC had between the line-up changes, they still felt like a natural girl group because there was a unified vision. They weren't some girl group that were thrust together out of the blue that barely had time to get to know each other. The original group all grew up together and were genuinely friends. When Michelle came in, she became family. To this day, I've never seen an ex-girl group, or boy band for that matter, remain close like they have. Bey and Kelly have even patched things up with former members in recent years. Amazing. Even if another girl group becomes relatively succesful I don't see them having the legacy DC or ny other iconic girl group from the past has. They were the last to uphold the bar that was set by The Supremes.

I doubt they will have iconic hits like PCD so...

They could never!