The Sony Classics team decided to take a lemon and make lemonade. They obtained a list of reporters who were invited to the Cars 2 junket and sent them press notes from Midnight in Paris, encouraging them to ask Wilson questions about the Allen film during the Pixar media day. Wilson happily complied, answering queries about his character in Paris that provided material for a host of stories. Sony Classics also got a hold of Wilson's schedule of TV appearances to promote Cars 2 on shows like Late Show with David Letterman, then bought ad time for Paris spots on the nights when Wilson was a guest.[18]
—Patrick Goldstein, Los Angeles Times
The film is co-produced by Allen's Gravier Productions and the Catalan company Mediapro[19] and was picked up by Sony Pictures Classics for distribution. It is the fourth film the two companies have co-produced, the others being Sweet and Lowdown, Whatever Works and You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger. The film's poster is a reference to Vincent van Gogh's 1889 painting The Starry Night.[20]
In promoting the film, Allen was willing to do only a limited amount of publicity at its Cannes Film Festival debut in May. Wilson was already committed to promoting Pixar's Cars 2, which opened in late June, several weeks after Allen's film arrived in cinemas. Due to these challenges and the relatively small ($10 million) budget for promotion, Sony Classics had to perform careful media buying and press relations to promote the film.[18]
