The film by Guillaume Canet in the casting XXL sold 466,703 tickets for its first day of operation.
MO12345LEMONDE With AFP
This is the seventh best start of all time for a French film. “Asterix and Obélix: The Empire in the middle” was one of the most anticipated French films at the start of the year. Despite the hard and bad criticisms, the film has made the best start for 15 years, with 466,703 admissions sold in France Wednesday, February 1.
The most famous of the Gauls have slightly preceded the figures of “La Ch’tite Famille” by Dany Boon, which had made 451,530 entries for his first day in 2018, according to CBO Box-Office figures . However, he does not go beyond the success of another Dany Boon film, “Bienvenue chez les ch’tis”, released in 2008 and which had made 558,359 admissions.
eleven years after “Asterix and Obelix: in the service of His Majesty” (3.8 million admissions), the film was a challenge for its director Guillaume Canet, who also succeeds Édouard Baer in the costume of Asterix. Guillaume Canet posted in its Instagram account , a screenshot with the figures of the box office of films in French, adding “thank you”.
The film was released on February 1 in French dark rooms. “” Asterix and Obelix “, it is a franchise that is known worldwide [and] the film is already sold almost everywhere,” except in China, Guillaume Canet told the France-Presse agency. “I hope he is seen all over the world, especially because, compared to French cinema, it would be great that a film of this size works so that there are others,” continues -il.
Risky bet of a casting xxl
After “say it to no one” and the success of “small handkerchiefs”, one of the most popular figures in French cinema is attacking its first superproduction, and a national monument. “It was far from what I knew how to do! The special effects, the huge battle scenes … I was wondering if I was going to be able to do it,” he recalls. A sign of the interest that the film arouses, it was pre-funded by Netflix, which can distribute it abroad.
Asterix heads for China in “The Empire of the Middle”, making the risky bet of a casting XXL, where Gilles Lellouche and Marion Cotillard rub shoulders with football, rap and youtube stars.
It took actors that people “like”, explains Guillaume Canet, in this case “very popular” personalities, who speak in particular to a youth who no longer frequents cinemas. “The great films like this represent joy, the feast of cinema in a very free and very wide way, without chapel, without family, without partitioning”, adds Gilles Lellouche.
It will however be difficult to do better than “Mission Cleopatra” (2002), Alain Chabat’s success at the more than 14 million admissions, and to replicas become cult. /Div> evening lessons How to watch a table? Discover our art history lesson with Françoise Barbe-Gall MO12345lemonde workshops