The critic Eric Libiot of L'Express, denounced ‘Asterix at the Olympic Games' as "a film is a commercial venture that should shake his money to hide the emptiness of the scenario. And that the lack of artistic ambition and contempt with which it treats the audience result in a reduced ticket price. "
The general consensus is that films have a dual purpose, to entertain its audience and generate revenue, so, what happens when a film does not fulfill these two objectives?
With a pharonic budget that catered to an international cast and special effects, "Asterix at the Olympic Games" was adapted from the album released by Uderzo and Goscinny. (January 31, 2008) The film was meant to appeal to a wider audience but the response to the film was far from favorable.
The director and producer, Thomas Langmann and Frédéric Forestier respectively focused their efforts on the form rather than substance i.e. on the marketing rather than on the film. Langmann's ambition was clear, to get enormous returns from the French box office and then the rest of Europe.
The critics felt that the marketing communication for the film was well strategized but the humor of the film did not come off as well.
So, is it possible to produce an artistic film which can also be considered as a consumer product? The Asterix saga attempted this which led to inevitable inefficiencies and negative effects. In this paper we will analyze exactly where the marketing mix i.e.
Price, Product, Communication and Distribution went wrong.
Tags: Commercial failure of ‘Asterix at the Olympic Games' movie, marketing mix of ‘Asterix', Thomas Langmann, Frederic Forestier.
[...] ‘Asterix at the Olympic Games' also ranked in first place in the box offices in Spain and second in Italy, despite the French press unanimously criticizing the weaknesses of the story line, the slow pace and the lack of humor. If we look at the whole of Europe, the film was seen by 4,829,727 people, which is a higher than the previous two movies that were watched by 3,595,250 and 4,335,315 people respectively in the span of a week in Europe. In the end, there were about 6000 copies of the film in over 40 European countries. [...]
[...] This is the difference between this film and the previous which sold well in France and did not do well in other countries. One of the reasons that the film did well in the other European countries was that it included popular European athletes. The marketing communications strategy that they implemented imitated the way American films are publicized which was received negatively. Recommendations For future films, it is recommended that they - Promote quality over quantity - Have a more specific target market. [...]
[...] The reviews of the movie and a series of internal leaks influenced the failure of the film. Other rumors also tarnished its release. One of them was that they hired prostitutes to be extras in the film. All the athletes who participated in the film donated their salaries to charity. Reviews Positive Hanks to the huge efforts on the part of the marketing strategists, everyone knew about the film(cognitive), it had already developed a reputation and an image (emotional) and sold over 3 million tickets in one week (conative aspect). [...]
[...] Reviews Negative The French humor used in the film did not generate much response in the other countries. The film did not arouse any interest in the US and has no U.S. based distributor. -The estimated number of ticket sales was not met especially in Europe. Positive Diffusion-important in France and Europe -The film was released on the same day in theatres in France and the rest of Europe to avoid piracy. The film-generated a lot of revenue even before its release by selling copies of ‘Asterix at the Olympic Games' to distributors and foreign television operators. [...]
[...] Their presence was intended only, to promote the film because they are favorites of the people. As he wanted to ensure that the film would be a success all over Europe, the director also recruited foreign actors who are stars in their own countries (for Germany, Michael Herbig, Santiago Segura from Spain and Benoit Poelvoorde from Belgium). The director did not stop there, he also recruited athletes such as Amelie Mauresmo, Tony Parker and Zinedine Zidane. - The story The movie with the biggest budget in French film history was not well received, the critics did not hesitate to describe the cinematic errors that they saw and many said that the previous adaptation of the comic strip was better (The previous film was directed by Alain Chabat.) The story and some of the scenes were simplified for viewers overseas who might not have read the comic strip and thus, not know the back story of the characters. [...]
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