In Yugoslavia, time goes by bringing changes with each passing year....
During the war years, French films commanded an impressive share of the theatrical market, thanks particularly to the active role played by the distributor Metrofilm. The extraordinary success of "Asterix and Obelix versus Caesar" in 1999 is a fine example. The film triumphed with 402,000 admissions to its credit, representing 11.59% of all spectators nationwide – twice as many as in France (5.82%).
Today, "Brotherhood of the Wolf" has attracted close to 130,000 spectators after 16 weeks on the screens, and is set to take out first place at the national box office in 2001, with admissions figures nonetheless below those scored by "Taxi 2" in 2000 (168,000 tickets sold.) This decline in attendance is due to the standardization of the country's movie industry, the positive side of which being an upsurge in the number of films released this year: 12 French-language films were released over a period of 8 months, compared to 7 during the whole of 2000.
An additional point warrants a mention: "Brotherhood of the Wolf" (for which Metrofilm has also acquired the rights for the Bosnia-Herzegovina's Republika Srpska,) was released in 3 prints in this territory, and after 6 weeks, amassed close to 10,000 admissions – a figure not equaled by a French film in many years.
