PRIDE & PREJUDICE (2005): Keira Knightley’s Jane Austen Adaptation Set to Return to Theaters for its 20th Anniversary

2005’s Pride & Prejudice Set to Be Re-Released

Focus Features‘ 2005 adaptation of Jane Austen‘s classic novel, Pride & Prejudice, is set to be re-released in theaters just in time for its 20th Anniversary.

On April 20th and April 23rd this year, the 2005 film version of Pride & Prejudice will return to theaters for English majors (past and present) who may not have had the opportunity to ever see it on the big screen. Romance fans will want to see this one just as much as Jane Austen fans because it’s one of the great literary adaptations of all-time. Its star, Keira Knightley, received an Academy Award nomination for her role as the heroine, Elizabeth Bennet in the 2005 picture.

Matthew Macfadyen portrayed the popular literary character, Mr. Darcy, in this 2005 version of Pride & Prejudice which won the hearts of people all over the world upon its initial theatrical release almost twenty years ago. It earned an “A-” CinemaScore grade which proved romantics and literary adaptation fans were happy with what they saw on-screen. Time has been quite kind to the movie which was directed by Joe Wright. Like fine wine, the picture has improved with age, and the film feels like it was sort of underappreciated back then despite the four Oscar nominations that it received.

Box-office grosses were rather high twenty years ago for Pride & Prejudice. It earned $38 million on the art house circuits (and through its worldwide domestic release) and made an additional $83 million internationally which made its final tally well over $120 million. That’s partly because of Knightley’s tremendous star power which arrived on the movie scene when the first Pirates of the Caribbean film came out and the smaller hit, Bend it Like Beckham, was released before it. Knightley brought dignity, emotion and poise to her complex character in Pride & Prejudice and audiences enjoyed the results immensely.

Pride & Prejudice boasts an extraordinary supporting cast. Carey Mulligan, Jena Malone, Rupert Friend, Brenda Blethyn, Judi Dench and Donald Sutherland co-starred in the movie which many say was one of the most successful straight literary adaptations of Jane Austen source material ever. To see how other straight Austen film adaptations fared comparatively, Emma with Gwyneth Paltrow, only earned $22 million domestically. A hilarious American modern-day spin on Austen’s Emma story, Clueless, fared better than both aforementioned Austen pictures with a $56 million domestic gross. Clueless is now coming up on its 30th Anniversary itself. Paramount may want to jump on a re-release if it hasn’t planned one yet.

Also take note that the moving Academy Award-nominated soundtrack for Pride & Prejudice will be released on vinyl very soon as well. This is all an English major’s dream come true, and you can bet I’ll be among those waiting on-line to see the re-release of the Keira Knightley version of Pride & Prejudice when it is officially released in theaters. I remember seeing it the first time at Kew Gardens Cinemas in Queens, New York back in 2005 alongside a full house of satisfied fans.

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