Highly anticipated, the film "Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Empire" is already at the top of the box office.
Guillaume Canet's super production is making the best start for a French film in ten years with 463,026 admissions at the end of the first day, according to figures from the Pathé group.
Among them, the film counts 275,658 admissions in preview.
For comparison, “Avatar 2” achieved 250,000 admissions for its first day on December 14th.
Eleven years after "Asterix and Obelix: in the service of His Majesty" (3.8 million admissions), the film, released in theaters on Wednesday, was a challenge for its director Guillaume Canet, who also succeeds Édouard Baer in Asterix costume.
The film could still take advantage of the winter holidays which begin this Friday to reach one million admissions.
For the time being, the blockbuster is ahead of the latest opus, “Asterix and Obelix: In the service of his majesty” which had totaled 120,000 admissions during the first day of screening.
Alain Chabat's production, “Asterix and Obelix: Mission Cleopatra” had, for its part, gathered 629,148 admissions during its first day.
A burlesque and incredible epic
For the first time, this Asterix film is not adapted from an existing comic book.
A derivative album of this original story will be released in bookstores a week later.
On the menu of this burlesque and incredible epic, some essentials: devoured wild boars, sunken pirate ships or stratospherized Romans.
Kung-fu, scenario requires.
All sprinkled with magic potion and traditional anachronisms of the series, but above all full of stars.
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The cast features, among others, Marion Cotillard and Vincent Cassel as the electric Cleopatra/César couple, José Garcia, Philippe Katerine as the Assurancetourix bard, Ramzy Bedia and the twisting Jonathan Cohen, in the role of the Phoenician merchants Epidemaïs and Graindemaïs.
Guillaume Canet also chooses to invite stars from other horizons: the singer Angèle becomes Falbala, Orelsan slips into the skin of Titanix, appear the rappers Bigflo and Oli, the youtubers McFly and Carlito.
Without forgetting a certain Zlatan Ibrahimovic under the Roman helmet of Antivirux.