Sony Pictures Classics is doubling down on the Oscar and box office chances of Woody Allen’s Midnight In Paris. Deadline reports that SPC will re-release Midnight in Paris nationwide on August 26th in an attempt to capitalize on the film’s exceptional buzz.
Midnight in Paris, which recently became the highest grossing film in Woody Allen’s 40 plus year career, stars Owen Wilson as Gil, a struggling screenwriter who travels to Paris with his shrewish girlfriend, Rachel McAdams, in hopes of being inspired for his first novel. While the girlfriend spends time with her equally unpleasant parents, Kurt Fuller and Mimi Kennedy, Gil wanders the streets of Paris and is transported.
Each night, around midnight, Gil is picked up by an ancient car and whisked back in time to the Paris of the 1930’s where the Fitzgerald’s (Allison Pill and Tom Hiddleston) invite him to garish parties, Ernest Hemingway (Corey Stoll) dispenses wisdom over a drink and Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates) edits Gil’s novel.
Midnight in Paris is considered by many critics to be a return to form for Woody Allen who hasn’t had a solid, out of the ball park, box office hit since the early 1990s. Box office aside, Midnight in Paris is indeed among Allen’s all time great films featuring stellar performances from Owen Wilson, Marion Cotillard, who plays Wilson’s equally dreamy 1930’s love interest, and especially Corey Stoll whose Hemingway is an Oscar-worthy creation.
I mention Oscar and that too must be on the minds of Sony Pictures Classic as they put Midnight in Paris back into the nationwide marketplace. The theory goes, that bigger box office equals bigger awards attention. Although, the makers of The Hurt Locker would argue that opinion, that film managed a best picture win while grossing just over 10 million dollars domestic.
Nevertheless, the re-expansion of Midnight in Paris is about money not the awards chase; SPC could have held the re-release until late October or November for the Awards attention. The cynical truth is that there is more money to be made on Midnight in Paris and Sony Pictures Classic is going to chase those dollars beginning Friday, August 26th.
