Woody Allen at the 'To Rome With Love' premiere (Patrick McMullan)

Is it the summer of the prestige indies? After the superlative debut of Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom, Woody Allen's similarly fussy and delightful To Rome With Love landed in theaters this past weekend with an approximate $76,000 per-theater average. Last summer, Mr. Allen had his greatest financial success ever with Midnight in Paris, which ended up winning the Best Original Screenplay Oscar; per a Sony Pictures Classics exec's interview with Deadline, To Rome With Love will be rolled out to theaters across America faster than was Midnight in Paris to capitalize on blockbuster counterprogramming.

To Rome With Love is unlikely to net Mr. Allen another screenwriting Oscar: our Rex Reed said that the film "should be accompanied by a sign that says 'Gone fishing.'" Not that Mr. Allen cares: he told The Observer that, although he skipped the Oscar presentation, "They mailed it to me! You can’t avoid them.”