Culture news A year after the failure of Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom, this director takes his revenge on the box office
In February 2023, the public discovered the film Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom… in front of a press still stunned by the show they had attended in preview. A bit below the initial objectives, Guillaume Canet’s film attempted to reverse the curve with a foreign release. Ultimately, the path to success was paved with pitfalls but its director quickly knew how to tame the box office… by putting himself at the service of his other fellow directors, as is the case at the moment with A Coup de Dés .
Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom celebrates its first anniversary, between failure and success
A year ago, there was a stampede for the new film of the adventures of Asterix and Obelix, subtitled The middle Empire. It took him months to achieve his objectives, greatly helped by the international marketing of the film. However, don’t tell its director, Guillaume Canet, that it is a failure. Defending him tooth and nail, the interpreter of Asterix in the film in question has insisted on numerous occasions that this film is a successful bet. Even last December, Guillaume Canet came back to defend his cinematic baby. However, defending it so blindly raises questions.
And all the more so since the feature film found itself in international competition with a Franco-Korean-Japanese animated film… which ended up stealing first place and being elected French leader of 2023 on the big screen abroad thanks to its 7.15 million admissions in the 26 territories where it was screened. Really, for the adventures of Asterix and Obelix to return to success, we must in fact turn to comics since the fortieth volume, released at the end of October, was welcomed with open arms by readersselling more than 500,000 copies in less than a month.
Guillaume Canet reconciles with the box office… even though he is no longer behind the camera
Does Guillaume Canet have the effect of a black cat on the French box office? Well, according to the latest results, if there may have been a curse, this has just been shattered with the release of the new film in which he plays one of the main roles, A roll of the dice by Yvan Attal. As Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom, this new feature film did not necessarily have good reviews, except that that did not prevent it from ensuring its launch – in particular thanks to its casting – with very good numbers. According to initial estimates, A roll of the dice attracted no fewer than 221,196 spectators to theaters for its first week of screening, easily allowing it to take first placefollowed by the film Poor Creatures (with Emma Stone) and its 130,000 and some entries.
However, as for the film Asterix and Obelix, there are things to put into context since this success for Attal and Canet is perhaps not as brilliant as one might think. And this, for the simple reason that the week of January 24 to 30 is the worst week at the start of the year, as well as the second worst performing week at the French box office (compared to other Week 4 at the FR box office)… for over 30 years! Screened in 560 theaters in France, A roll of the dice depicts the disrupted daily life of two friends, Mathieu and Vincent. Yet with unfailing loyalty, Mathieu will begin to have more and more doubts about his friend, particularly since he knows that he is cheating on his wife and, above all, that his mistress has suddenly died, thus creating a game of suspicion between the two friends and their spouses.