General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Astérix et Obélix: L'Empire du Milieu

Astérix et Obélix: L'Empire du Milieu (released in English as Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom) is a 2023 French live-action adventure comedy directed by Guillaume Canet, who also plays Astérix opposite Gilles Lellouche's Obélix. It is the fifth live-action feature built on René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo's comic series, and the first of the live-action films not adapted from any album; its screenplay is an original story set in China.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Director and lead	Guillaume Canet directed and plays Astérix; Gilles Lellouche plays Obélix¹
Screenplay	Original story co-written by Canet with Julien Hervé and Philippe Mechelen; not based on an album²
Setting	50 BC; the Empress of China is deposed by the renegade prince Deng Tsin Quin, and César's army also sets out for the Middle Kingdom¹
French release	1 February 2023, 111 minutes, rated Tous publics; distributed by Pathé Films³
French box office	1,882,686 admissions in the first week, the fourth-best start among the five live-action Astérix films⁴
Critical reception	44% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (9 reviews) and 42% on the audience Popcornmeter⁵
International reach	Released in 41 countries⁶

Spoilers

Plot

The story is set in 50 BC. The Empress of China has been imprisoned after a coup d'état fomented by Deng Tsin Quin, a treacherous prince. Helped by Graindemaïs, a Phoenician merchant, and by her loyal warrior Tat Han, Princess Fu-Yi, the Empress's only daughter, flees to Gaul to ask for help from Astérix and Obélix, whose superhuman strength comes from the magic potion brewed by the druid Panoramix. The two Gauls agree to help the princess save her mother and free her country, and the company sets out for China. César and his powerful army, still hungry for conquest, have also set course for the Middle Kingdom.¹

The Quebec classification summary adds a character thread absent from the albums: Astérix questions his diet, built almost entirely around wild boar, before Graindemaïs arrives back in the village with the princess.⁷

Cast and production

Canet assembled a large French cast around his own Astérix: Gilles Lellouche as Obélix, Marion Cotillard as Cléopâtre, Vincent Cassel as César, Jonathan Cohen as Graindemaïs, José Garcia as Biopix, Jérôme Commandeur as Abraracourcix, Audrey Lamy as Bonnemine, Philippe Katerine as Assurancetourix, Julie Chen as Princess Fu Yi, and Bun Hay Mean as Deng Tsin Quin; Pierre Richard, Ramzy Bedia, Linh-Dan Pham, Leanna Chea, Manu Payet and Franck Gastambide also appear.⁸^•⁹

Production and effects. The film was produced by Trésor Films with Les Enfants Terribles as delegate producer, and co-produced by TF1 Films Production, Artémis Productions, Pathé Films, Shelter Prod, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Cinéma and White and Yellow Films, with support from Belgium's federal Tax Shelter scheme and the CNC.¹ MPC Paris, which had handled the visual effects for Astérix aux Jeux Olympiques and Astérix et Obélix: Au service de sa Majesté, delivered more than 285 VFX shots supervised by Hugues Namur, devoted mainly to crowds and to the environments of the film's four palaces; the work occupied the studio's artists for more than nine months.¹⁰

Release

The CNC granted the film its visa on 13 January 2023 with a Tous publics rating, and Pathé Films released it in French cinemas on 1 February 2023.³ Quebec received it earlier, on 17 January 2023, under the title Astérix et Obélix : l'empire du milieu with the English alternate title Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom.⁷ Spain followed on 3 February 2023, where the film drew 112,013 spectators and €679,025.47.¹¹ According to the production's press kit, the film opened in 41 countries.⁶ It later became available for rental and purchase on French platforms including Canal VOD, Amazon Video, TF1+ and Apple TV, and on DVD and Blu-ray.¹²

Box office

The film opened strongly in France despite sharply negative press reviews. Its first day, Wednesday 1 February 2023, totaled 463,026 admissions including previews, at the time the seventh-best opening day ever for a French film. Over its first week, 1 to 7 February, it sold 1,882,686 tickets on 719 screens.⁴

That start ranked fourth among the five live-action Astérix films, ahead of only Au service de sa Majesté (1,132,279 first-week admissions in 2012) and behind Astérix et Obélix contre César (2,718,443 in 1999), Astérix aux Jeux Olympiques (3,007,811 in 2008) and Mission Cléopâtre (3,685,097 in 2002).⁴ For the full year 2023 the film recorded about 4.59 million admissions in France, placing it among the year's leading domestic titles.¹³

Reception

Critical response was largely negative in France, where reviewers faulted the jokes, the cameos and a storyline described as empty, and the film's ending carries a tribute to Goscinny and Uderzo.¹⁴ On Rotten Tomatoes the film held a 44% Tomatometer from 9 critics and a 42% audience score; English-language critics were mixed, with some finding the plot thin but the execution energetic, and others judging the humor about Chinese culture dated.⁵ The film's place in the series is that of the first live-action entry to tell an original story rather than adapt one or more albums, a choice shared only with the 3D animated Astérix: Le Secret de la Potion Magique and the animated The Twelve Tasks of Asterix among the screen adaptations.²^•¹⁵^•¹⁶

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026