After receiving the highest film prize at the Cannes Film festival, Parasite has finally opened in the US to tremendous success. On Friday Parasite made headlines selling out every single ticket released and making $376, 264 in only 3 theaters, one in NY and the other two in LA, for the amazingly buzzed about movie. That is $125,421 per theater, y’all.
And these numbers aren’t for people just showing up to the theater. Parasite sold out every single showing over the weekend, before the weekend even started, which had newspapers in NY dropping headlines that read: If You Want to see ‘Parasite’ this weekend, Then You Will Need to Fly To Los Angeles.
Parasite has sold more tickets than Akwafina’s star turn in The Farewell which is another acclaimed foreign language film (though domestic US film), for the best debut per screen average of the year. No small feat as The Farewell is considered an award show darling as well.
With how well Parasite has been received, it is pretty much guaranteed to have a best foreign film nomination and many think that it could also win. I mean, being the #1 film at Cannes is no small feat and the director, Bong Joon Ho, is no newbie to the award show circuit having directed The Host, Mother, Snowpiercer, and Okja. However, no film has gotten as much attention as Parasite which is a film that is housed with so much mystery that everyone says you have to watch it cold. Meaning that if they say anything about it then they have given too much away. I’m so intrigued!
Parasite is such a buzzed about movie that many reviewers think that it could break out of the foreign film category and be nominated in other categories at the Oscars as well. Though their competition for nominations would be The Farewell and The Joker, both very strong contenders. In fact, I would say The Joker is the strongest because it has controversy and box office on its side, but hopefully all three can squeeze in a few nominations each.
So, are you going to watch Parasite? It has opened in limited release in other small arthouse theaters across the US, most likely in cities with large Korean populations. If you do, let us know how you liked it!
