The Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men is getting a major boost in theaters on Friday, courtesy of its Oscar win for best picture, and will nearly triple its screen count to 190, according to distributor Alliance Films. In all, the modern western will play in 2030 theaters across North America.

Alliance executive managing director Michael Rudnitsky tells Playback Daily that the film’s grosses jumped 92% during the week leading up to the Oscars.

‘The nominations help boost you tremendously over that six- to seven-week period between nominations and awards. But as far as the awards are concerned…best picture is the big one,’ he explains. ‘If there’s a film that wins four or five awards, but not picture, that will still work, but nothing helps like best picture,’ he continues. Country, starring Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin, was originally released on Nov. 8.

Rudnitsky says that with 190 theaters in Canada, Alliance hopes to generate ‘anywhere from $2 million or more’ over the next couple of weeks. In addition to best picture, Country also won supporting actor for Bardem, and adapted screenplay and director honors for Joel and Ethan Coen.

It’s a busy week for Alliance, which is also releasing the Will Ferrell comedy Semi-Pro on 276 screens across Canada, while the Brazilian drama City of Men bows in seven theaters in cities including Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary and Montreal.

Meanwhile, TVA Films is rereleasing double Oscar winner La vie en rose on six screens Friday in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. The film, about the life of legendary French singer Edith Piaf, has been out on DVD since November.

‘Only in theaters can you fully appreciate its grandeur, the emotion, the music, and, more importantly, Marion Cotillard’s outstanding performance,’ commented TVA president Yves Dion in a release. Rose won the best actress Academy Award for Cotillard, and also took best makeup for Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald.

Toronto’s Mongrel Media is also readying its best foreign film winner The Counterfeiters, opening at Toronto’s Varsity and Sheppard Grande. The Austrian feature, about a counterfeiting operation set up by the Nazis, will expand to Vancouver next week.

‘We definitely expect a boost in box office in light of the Academy Award. It certainly did help The Lives of Others last year,’ says Mongrel director of theatrical releasing Tom Alexander, noting that more screens will be added in the next few weeks.

Oscar also smiled on Alex Gibney’s Taxi to the Dark Side — this year’s best documentary winner — which will move to Toronto’s Carlton for an extended theatrical run beginning March 7, according to distributor Seville Pictures. Taxi opened at the independent Royal theater last week. The doc investigates the homicide of an innocent taxi driver at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan.

Also opening this week is the fantasy comedy Penelope, starring Christina Ricci, on 108 screens through Seville Pictures. It will play opposite Columbia’s historical drama The Other Boleyn Girl, starring Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson.