The diptych La Bataille de Gaulle finally exceeded 5 million entries

If the box office got off to a bad start for this blockbuster, the two films recovered, buoyed by word of mouth.

This time the bar has been crossed: The Battle of Gaulle: The Iron Age And The Battle of Gaulle: I write your name jointly exceeded five million cinema admissions. However, the beginnings were complicated for this diptych produced by Antonin Baudry (The Song of the Wolf) and produced by Pathé. Its budget estimated at 80 million euros forced it to succeed, but the spectators did not respond immediately upon release. However, the two films (the release of the second had been brought forward for the cinema festival) continued to do well throughout the summer.

But how to explain it? Recently, producer Ardavan Safaee, president of Pathé Films, assured that De Gaulle changed his destiny by surfing on excellent word of mouth and social networks:

“ We really felt the positive word of mouth take off in the third week. We were the only film to progress by 17%, while all the others followed a much more traditional trajectory », deciphered Safaee for Variety. This dynamic was then amplified with the heatwave, which brought audiences back to air-conditioned theaters, but also thanks to the Fête du Cinéma, during which film attendance jumped by 68%.

However, the marketing budget had been enormous from the start: “ We were everywhere, with a lot of posters, online advertising… We invested as if for a real blockbuster. But the public did not come immediately (…) De Gaulle is a figure who can seem distant, institutional or very political. This probably scared some people. However, the film shows a face of the General that the public knows much less. »