A Rainy Day in New York, the Woody Allen film disowned by high-profile members of its cast and whose US release was cancelled by its original backer, Amazon Studios, has reportedly become the highest-earning film at the global box office this week.
With most of the world’s cinemas shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic, A Rainy Day in New York is reported by Box Office Mojo to have earned over $330,000 last weekend in South Korea, after the country began to ease its strict lockdown in recent days.
Figures are difficult to come by, but reports suggest that A Rainy Day in New York’s total is well ahead of Pixar’s Onward, which took just over $17,000 in Norway, La Belle Epoque, which earned $35,000 in Australia, and The Wretched which took $69,000 in the US.
A Rainy Day in New York has been mired in difficulties since the revival of sexual assault allegations against Allen by his daughter Dylan Farrow, which Allen denies. Farrow’s op-ed was published in the Los Angeles Times in December 2017, after the film had finished shooting but before post-production was completed. Its US release, originally planned for 2019, was cancelled by Amazon, which was subsequently sued by Allen over the termination of their contract with the film-maker. Cast members Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Hall and Selena Gomez donated large sums to charity, with Hall saying she “regretted” working with Allen, and Chalamet writing that he did not “want to profit from my work on the film”.
The film has however been released by independent distributors in multiple territories outside the US, including France, Spain, Mexico and Russia, earning around $20.9m so far. It is due to be released in the UK on 5 June.
