Following its triumphant Oscar night, Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite is set for an extended theatrical run in European markets as exhibitors and distributors look to capitalize on the film’s astronomic levels of current hype.
Tomorrow, the film is headed back onto 160 cinema screens in France, topping up a hugely successful run via local distributor The Jokers that has already seen it gross close to $12m in the territory.
The distrib also confirmed to us that the release of the black and white version of the movie is now officially set for February 19, and supplied the below new imagery that will accompany the roll out, complete with new tagline “nobody is all black or all white”.
Yesterday, box office figures from the pic’s opening weekend in the UK showed it had take $1.8M (including previews) from 136 venues, a record start for a foreign-language pic. Distributor Curzon reacted by announcing that the movie would expand into more than 400 sites.
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The UK releaser confirmed to us that it would also be rolling out the black and white version of the film, though said plans were not yet ready to be announced.
In the U.S., rights holder Neon has already teamed up with the Film at Lincoln Center in New York and the American Cinematheque in Los Angeles to release the black and white version at select engagements. The regular print of the film is on track to hit $45m gross.
The black and white copy debuted at the International Film Festival Rotterdam last month. Director Bong Joon Ho created it prior to the film’s debut at Cannes last year.
“I’m extremely happy to present Parasite in black and white and have it play on the big screen,” said Bong previously on the new version. “It will be fascinating to see how the viewing experience changes when an identical film is presented in black and white. I watched the black and white version twice now, and at times the film felt more like a fable and gave me the strange sense that I was watching a story from old times.”
The movie certainly caused a stir after its surprise Oscar triumph, where it picked up four trophies including Best Pic, becoming the first foreign language movie to take the grand prize. According to Twitter, the film was the subject of 1.6 million tweets during the ceremony, becoming the most tweeted about film of the night, with Bong the most tweeted about celeb.
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