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It would be very strange if such an otherworldly film received a wide release. I've said before that young women and girls are sometimes
willing to allow for quite some artistic licence, as long as there are hot male actors involved (as with in life, how they are willing to give quite long ropes to boyfriends who are very attractive, tolerating things they would tolerate not one percent of from lesser candidates - and men are the same when it comes to very hot women, of course), but there are limits. Truly, there are limits.
I wrote about this film on the forums here back in August, after having seen the last 15-20 minutes at a festival screening. Judging from the end of the film, I can't see any chance whatsoever that the movie before that point could explain fully all the absurdities towards the end.
At the very least the audience (female, male, mixed, four-quad, whomever) expects some kind of pay-off or reward towards the end. Here, it seems, there is none. It's probably meant to reflect the absurd logic of our dream state, of how the subconscious works (to solve puzzles and resolve injustices etc, but involving unreal scenarios, surroundings and sequences of events). It's some kind of phantasia. As such, it's very art-like/artsy/artisan of course, and art house movies almost always play to limited audiences, not to wide ones.
It won't receive WOM from those young women or girls, but could receive some arthouse WOM. In any event. that's not enough to build a wide or extended platform release on. And to the extent that females and gay men would want to enjoy this acid trip as a guilty pleasure, it's likely that they will prefer to do so at home, not in a theatre - so they'll wait for the DVD-release.
It will receive repeat viewings in theatres from very, very few people. In fact, I'd love to see the arguments for why people would want to pay several times to see it in theatres, other than hardcore arthouse/phantasia enthusiasts, die hard Gilliams fans or people who have too much time and money on their hands and want to see it several times in order to perhaps be able to grasp what it's actually about...
(Again, I didn't see all of it, but then again, many movie critics do not see all of the movies they write reviews for - believe it or not. If you don't believe me, you should try to get hold of that film about the Cannes festival that Bruce Willis' girlfriend in Pulp Fiction made; Maria de Medeiros - "Je t'aime... moi non plus: Artistes et critiques":
SITWAP: Sony Pictures Classics is trying to sell "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus"[IMDRP] to young audiences Dec 11, 19:20
By the way, who has more info about the film's nationwide release on 1/8/2010? (Is it an HSX-wide) Dec 11, 19:24
Sorry... double post.... {nm} Dec 11, 19:25
Not your fault, that's for sure. Only wish there was a delete button as in the league pages. :) {nm} Dec 11, 19:47
Right now, it's 400 theatres on January 8. {nm} Dec 11, 21:50
Thank you so much, secretstalker! {nm} Dec 11, 21:55
By the way, who has more info about the film's nationwide release on 1/8/2010? (Is it an HSX-wide?) Dec 11, 19:25
It is limited on the stock page so I guess it is a 'wait-and-see". {nm} Dec 11, 19:47
It would be very strange if such an otherworldly film received a wide release. I've said before that young women and girls are sometimes Dec 12, 09:13