Kaizen and Inoxtag hot on the heels of Beetlejuice 2 at the French box office
The YouTuber’s documentary film about his Everest ascent attracted 310,000 viewers in just a few hours.
It is a phenomenon that goes beyond the borders of the web. The Youtuber Inoxtag is conquering cinemas after its conquest of Everest. Released in cinemas on Friday for two days of screening events, Kaizen has gathered more than 310,000 viewers. A fabulous score for this documentary recounting the adventure of the 21-year-old content creator who set himself the goal of climbing Everest, after a year of preparation.
Inoxtag is so strong that it takes second place at the box office this week and is right on the heels of Tim Burton: Beetlejuice 2 has gathered at the same time 460,000 fans in France (around 570,000 since Wednesday) and takes orders in Count of Monte Cristowho falls to the third step of the podium.
The epic of Pierre Niney is marking time (-32% attendance) and is content with 200,000 tickets sold in its 12th week, for a total of 8.2 million since its release in France.
But Monte Cristo is doubled by Inoxtagwhich also does much better than Daniel Auteuil And The Thread (160,000 spectators).
Enough to cause controversy among distributors, since the documentary produced by Basile Monnot is already available online, for free, on the YouTube account ofInoxtagIts simultaneous distribution in movie theaters (even for just two days) goes against the chronology of French media (a film that is released in theaters must wait 6 months before being on Canal +, 17 months before being on a streaming platform and 22 months before being able to be shown on a free-to-air TV channel).
Kaizendistributed by MK2.Alt, has however benefited from an event exit visa, a temporary visa granted by the CNC, which authorizes a cinema screening over a short period. Except that this visa is normally limited to a maximum of 500 screenings (over two days), whereas Kaizen benefited from 500 rooms but a thousand screenings (at least). The Bloc (Liaison Office of Cinema Organizations) denounces the infringement and argues that it has harmed the films scheduled at the same time. An outcry that the MK2 group does not understand. The distributor of Kaizen is surprised that the Bloc is “the first to be indignant and call for the censorship of such a joyful operation for theaters and spectators. It is an ideological oddity, which is part of a retrograde conservatism that is difficult to understand,” answers Nathanaël Karmitz, chairman of the board of directors of the MK2 group for Le Film Français.
He concludes: “‘There is a lack of understanding within this organization of the precise context surrounding this release. The exceeding of 500 screenings is not deliberate and is linked to a social phenomenon, which has mainly served provincial art house cinemas, territories and young spectators far from large urban centers (…) Being outraged by the success of an event in a cinema bringing together a young audience, which was until then announced as a major concern, demonstrates a profound disconnection of these union organizations with the realities of our professions and their rapid changes.”