Awards glory and box office success can only mean one thing for Bong Joon-ho's genre-defying South Korean satire: more screens!
Right now it's impossible to go anywhere without hearing talk of Parasite and its miraculous Oscar sweep at Sunday's 92nd Academy Awards. It was here that the South Korean masterpiece took home the statuettes for Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, Best International Feature, and Best Picture.
Parasite's unexpected Best Picture win over the assumed favourite, Sam Mendes' World War I thriller 1917, was a triumph for countless reasons. Not only did the victory help to break down global cinematic barriers and introduce the world to the incomparable films of Bong Joon-ho, it also proved that sometimes the Academy actually gets it right.
For anyone who thought they might not get the chance to see Parasite on the big screen, though, your prayers have been answered. In the wake of the film's unprecedented success at both the Oscars and at the box office, Bong Joon-ho's brilliant social satire – originally rolled out to just 136 screens across the UK and Ireland – is set to expand, country-wide, to more than 400.
Parasite has already amassed a whopping £1,079,102 from just 136 screens following its opening in the UK on Friday. The mass rollout to over 400 screens will begin this coming Friday the 14th of February – Valentine's Day! – thanks to Curzon, the film's UK film distributor. Is there anything more romantic than a timely and disturbing comedy-of-manners about two families caught in a class war? There is not.
