Box office breakdown

THE PERFORMANCE of Irish films in their home market is a sensitive area for Irish producers and distributors

Thu Jun 03 2010 - 01:00

THE PERFORMANCE of Irish films in their home market is a sensitive area for Irish producers and distributors. Against the backdrop of falling returns, the Irish Film Board, the co-financier of most films released in Ireland, has been discussing the issue with representatives from the distribution trade and others last month.

There are many ways to run a slide rule over the box office results of Irish films, and interpretations will differ greatly depending on the analyst’s perspective. There is also the valid argument that the box office is not the only measure of a film’s success.

The criticism that many of the films aren’t good enough to perform in the marketplace is the elephant in the auditorium which many people in the trade will not address on the record. “It’s too glib to say the films aren’t good enough; it’s a lot more complex than that,” is how one experienced producer puts it.

The complexity he is referring to includes the muscle of multinational distributors, the heavy throughput of “product” in Irish cinemas and, as he terms it, the “stranglehold” that the UK distribution trade maintains over box office earnings from Ireland.

That said, one of the major multinational distributors, Disney, has distributed 25 Irish titles over the last 15 years, and had considerable success with some of them. But Disney’s general manager in Ireland, Trish Long, suggests that the thinking behind the release of many Irish films does need to be examined.

“Whether the number of films and the kind of films that are getting a release are the right number and the right kind is something I believe should be interrogated,” she says.

Each year a total of about 300 individual film titles from around the world are released in Ireland, earning box office income that has grown from €140 million in 2007 to nearly €150m in 2009. However, an annual box office review of Irish cinema returns shows a clear decline in the fortunes of Irish-made films over that three-year period.

Ten Irish films were released in 2007, earning a total of €1,967,506. Twelve Irish films were released in 2008, earning a total of €1,362,397. And 10 Irish films were released in 2009, earning a total of €588,661. If you get into the tricky area of defining the “Irishness” of these films, the picture is complicated further.

The highest-earning Irish film in 2007 was an American studio picture, Becoming Jane(€441,486), shot in Ireland and partially financed by the Irish tax break, Section 481. The two highest-earning films in 2008 were Hunger(€561,508) and City of Ember(€290,453), both projects filmed and/or partially financed in Northern Ireland only. As was the highest-earning film of last year, Fifty Dead Men Walking(€267,470).

So far this year, while the number of films has increased (by the end of June, 13 new titles will have been launched), box office returns have been mixed, and undoubtedly disappointing for those films which were given a substantial push by their distributors and backed with marketing funds from the Irish Film Board (IFB).

The IFB now offers two types of distribution support for Irish releases, but only for those films it has backed with production finance. The main mechanism is its marketing support scheme, designed, according to an IFB spokesman, "in response to current market conditions and to incentivise distributors to release films in a much more targeted way". This scheme, adopted as of March 1st, has been utilised by the distributors of Perrier's Bounty, Ondineand Zonad, who received funding, respectively, of €75,000, €50,000 and €75,000, which in this, the first year of the scheme's operation, came in the form of non-repayable grants.

The box office results for these three films point to the difficulty of gauging the scale of each release successfully. Andrew Lowe, of Element Pictures, which produced and distributed Zonad and distributed Perrier's Bountyin Ireland, points to the considerable success the company had last year with Waveriders, from just 12 prints, and Kisses prior to that. But Zonad, released on 29 prints, did not go as well as had been hoped.

" Zonadwas, frankly, disappointing," Lowe says. "We had higher expectations of it. I don't think that it being an Irish film was its problem – there was a lot of competition out there. That said, we believe it will have a good life on DVD."

The IFB’s other scheme is focused on films getting a much smaller release. Just finished in its pilot phase, this scheme involves the IFB and the Irish Film Institute combining resources to release a film in the marketplace. It allows for a film to be screened in a context that includes a Q&A with the director and screenings of their earlier work.

"The first film through this scheme – which has the title 'direct distribution' – was Eamon, and it is envisaged for smaller art-house titles that struggle to find a traditional distributor but have proven themselves as either festival or critical successes," says the IFB spokesman. "We will be publishing details of this scheme on our website shortly."

The producer of Eamon, Seamus Byrne, says the scheme and the IFB's support was invaluable for the release of the film. This support is ongoing as the film makes its way around the country, with occasional screenings at conventional cinemas and through the Access Cinema film club network.

Byrne voices the fears of many in the business when he says that a concentration on the bottom line will obscure the fact that Irish films cannot be compared either with mainstream releases, with each other or with the niche films being screened for smaller audiences at specialist cinemas. "You cannot judge these things in purely commercial terms, even at the art-house end of the market. We opened Eamonon five screens at the same time as A Prophet, which was a very competitive draw, and while our film has been hugely successful at international festivals it is not a mainstream release."

Paul Ward, of the IMC cinema chain, makes a similar point, saying that while there are always potential audiences for Irish films, they generally fall into the niche end of the market, which is undergoing a particularly difficult time at present. “It’s always tough. There are five or six pictures going out every week, so the competition is fierce and there are economies of scale with the size of the release.”

All small releases, Irish or otherwise, have to try and achieve the same editorial coverage and market awareness on a much smaller budget. It must also be borne in mind that US studio releases generally arrive in Ireland with their marketing materials and trailers ready to go. Meanwhile, the cost of building a medium-sized release of an Irish film in Ireland, from scratch and including advertising materials, media buying and a promotion campaign, is in the region of €75,000 to €120,000, according to industry sources. This level of spend would allow for openings at 20 to 30 cinemas, though films released at this level have to gross at least €300,000 at the box office before distributors see any return on their outlay.

Eclipse Pictures is one of the few Irish distributors that occasionally takes on Irish titles. The company’s managing director, Siobhán Farrell, believes the issues are clear for any distributor thinking of backing an Irish film.

“We look at every title that’s sent in to us on a case-per-case basis,” she says. “We look for titles that we’re passionate about and that have a definite target market. At the end of the day, the audience must be willing to part with the price of a cinema ticket and not be disappointed with the result.”

It might be argued that commercial distributors are the gatekeepers, ensuring that only those Irish films with a market, however small, will get a release. But, given that the IFB is subsidising the release of films the agency has funded, it might be argued that films may be released that distributors would not otherwise take on.

THERE IS ANOTHER DEBATE OVER the IFB’s policy of supporting only the films it has funded itself. If the logic behind it is the cultural necessity of assisting Irish films to reach their home audience, then should that apply to all Irish films, not just those which received production finance from the agency? Irish film-makers and producers will often successfully push to get their films into cinemas when distributors have turned them down. The box office results of this activity are hard to track, because the amounts involved are very small. There is a view in the business that likens this practice to vanity publishing, saying that it damages the market for Irish films.

Others applaud the drive of the film-makers, usually people who have made their films without any official funding and whose energy and conviction get their films on to a few cinema screens without any subsidy.

Because these film-makers are increasingly working with low-budget digital-image capture and editing, and because of the gradual switch over to digital exhibition, the material cost of distribution has come down and more Irish films are likely to find their way into cinemas in this way, bypassing the usual routes. The recent Irish release, Trafficked, was originally finished three years ago when few Irish cinemas were equipped for digital exhibition. Having gone through the costly process, with IFB completion funding, of transferring to conventional film from digital tape, the film was released on both formats at six cinemas.

"Getting the finished film to a cinema audience has proved to be an entirely different and difficult challenge," says Traffickeddirector Ciaran O'Connor.

“In the last few years, there has been a number of Irish films, a lot of them low- or no-budget, and many haven’t had the opportunity to get a cinema release. We certainly won’t be rich after this cinema run, but getting recognition by having your film shown in cinemas is so vital for Irish film-makers and their cast and crew. This is especially true if you are trying to raise funds for your next film, and for professional credibility.”

TRYING TO CATCH A WAVE IRISH FILMS AND THEIR BOX OFFICE RECEIPTS 2007-2009

2007

Top two grossing films

Becoming Jane €441,486

Garage €305,952

Bottom two grossing films

Speed Dating €44,264

Small Engine Repair €14,323

2008

Top two grossing films

Hunger €561,508

City of Ember €290,543