REMAIN CALM. The Avengers have saved the farm, Christmas and Irish cinemas.
Back in the day, a film snaffling up a million euro or so over an extended weekend was a good bit
of business in the ROI. Crucially, though, it wasn’t a news story. But that, readers, was a long time before Ireland frittered away its cash on shiny baubles, before the all-important youth demographic upped sticks for sunnier shores, and before every spinning headline was a fiendish bit of black propaganda on behalf of – if only Vincent Price were around to do the voiceover – Austerity Measures.
These days, when a film hoovers up €1,174,373 on its opening weekend (including those all important previews), it’s a big deal.
How big, you ask? Well, there may be more movies competing in an increasingly homogenised marketplace than ever before. But when a film such as Marvel Avengers Assemble – as we’re so not calling it – pulls in this kind of revenue, footfall goes up at the multiplex, which is good news for everybody.
Accordingly, despite an expected drop in box office, Mirror Mirror jumped from the No 6 spot to No 4; 21 Jump Street held firm in the fifth spot; The Pirates in an Adventure with Scientists hopped up from No 7 to 6.
Yeah, but how big, really? Let’s compare The Avengers’ €1,174,373 to Hunger Games’ tally in the
No 2 slot. If our abacus is to be believed, The Hunger Games’ €67,271 is a much smaller number than a million-plus. It’s not a great haul for the second spot in a box-office chart, and it’s particularly poor when one considers that the US is currently celebrating a record-breaking first quarter, mostly thanks to Hunger Games and The Lorax.
Meanwhile, poor reviews, incredulous gender-bending and atrocious Oirish accents didn’t prevent Albert Nobbs from securing the No 3 position with an Irish take of €65,969 (not including previews). Not so bad, you think. Hmmm. Not so good either. That number has been massaged sports-, Thai- and happy ending-style when one factors in a massive multimedia ad spend and a blockbuster-sized contingent of prints scattered across ROI theatres.
Albert Nobbs, to paraphrase David St Hubbins, is a title with “select” appeal. Seventy-five prints were unleashed into the UK and Irish marketplaces: of these, a disproportionate 47 went to the ROI.
The film’s London-based distributor decided that what with the Dublin setting and all, us Irish would be well disposed toward Albert Nobbs. An Irish-based distributor might beg to differ. Just ask the makers of Sensation or Stella Days or The Other Side of Sleep.
Albert Nobbs averaged €1,404 off each print here. The Monk, a little-publicised, one-print French film, managed €1,996. Hans Kloss, a one-print Polish WW2 drama that opened without a press show, mustered €1,987.
Irish theatres enjoyed a solid last weekend in April. But are The Avengers available to save Irish cinema?
