Wednesday, February 1, 2023 was unveiled in dark rooms, Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Empire, directed by Guillaume Canet. With a budget of approximately 65 million euros, the fifth film in live action of the adventures of the Gallic heroes (although it was not adapted from a comic strip by Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny, editor’s note) had great ambitions. But the bar of five million entries has not been crossed. It took at least six to cover its costs. In addition to this missed objective, many critics have smashed this feature film with its stunning cast (Gilles Lellouche, Jonathan Cohen, Angèle, Vincent Cassel, Marion Cotillard, Audrey Lamy, Pierre Richard, Ramzy Bedia, José Garcia, Manu Payet, Philippe Katerine, Jérôme Commandeur, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Florent Manaudou etc…).
Fortunately, Marcel’s dad was able to count on many personalities to defend his latest achievement. “I find that they were very, very, very violent with Asterix. It didn’t deserve so much. I have never seen such a surge of wickedness. And I think there are a lot of blunders. Nothing deserves such a wave of hate. You don’t have to go see it. I was shocked. I found that shocking. No one deserves such anger.” released Benoît Poelvoorde in a podcast ofAllocated. “Everyone fell on him when the film is really not bad”, indicated Vincent Desagnat on France Inter. “The vehemence of people on the film amazed me a lot. All the films are attackable and I hear the reasons for which the film does not please. But the personal attacks on a family film, which has nothing to do with fire, which has no other claim than to entertain the greatest number, I don’t understand them. The violent reception he received seemed to me unheard of. It’s a bit of a drama at the time“, lamented Gilles Lellouche who plays Obélix in the comedy.
A success abroad
According Unifrance, Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Empire managed to exceed two million admissions outside France for a total of 13.4 million receipts. The production is the biggest international success for a French production since the end of 2019. Released in 35 countries (for the moment since the film will be shown in particular in Germany, Austria or Portugal as indicated by the site, editor’s note), it was in Poland where it was the most popular with 727,000 tickets sold.
See also: Guillaume Canet and “Asterix and Obelix” vs Philippe Lacheau and “Alibi.com 2”: the numbers have spoken and there is a big disappointment!
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