Box-Office: A look at the Irish impact on the combined UK & Irish Box-Office in 2014

For years the UK box-office figures has included the Republic of Ireland. The reason for this is primarily because the two markets are so similar, and the distribution companies tend to share resources. So I was curious as to the Irish component of the UK box office figures for films released in the first 6 months of 2014. As expected Irish films released in both markets had the highest percentages.

Far out in front was John Butler’s The Stag with 83% of the total combined UK and Irish box-office coming from the Republic of Ireland. That was followed by another Irish film, John Michael McDonagh’s Calvary, which saw 42% of its combined box-office come from southern Ireland. Number 3 is a scheduling anomaly, with DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon 2 earning 37% of its total in Ireland. The film was released two weeks earlier in Irish and Scottish cinemas, and is still on release. When final figures are available towards the end of the year this will be considerably lower.

The next 3 in terms of percentages are also Irish productions, with Ken Loach’s Jimmy’s Hall at 33%, Lenny Abrahamson’s Frank at 21%, and the Brendan O’Carroll starring Mrs. Brown’s Boys d’Movie earning 17% of its extraordinary box-office from Ireland.

Rounding out the Top Ten are US productions; Dallas Buyers Club (16%), Endless Love (13%), Muppets Most Wanted (12%), and Last Vegas (11%).

On the whole the Irish box-office represents 7% of the total combined figures for the UK and Irish market, which is exactly what our population of 4.589 million represents in the total for the islands. But when it comes to our own we really do turn out in droves.

Rank	Title	Country of Origin	Total Gross to date	Irish Gross	FX Adjusted	Irish % of UK BO	Irish Rank
116	The Stag	Ire	£542,586	€560,140	£448,112	83%	25
36	Calvary	UK/Ire	£2,919,611	€1,545,085	£1,236,068	42%	9
54	How to Train Your Dragon 2	USA	£1,459,256	€677,102	£541,682	37%	23
74	Jimmy’s Hall	UK/Ire	£494,644	€202,969	£162,375	33%	40
72	Frank	UK/Ire	£511,522	€131,365	£105,092	21%	43
16	Mrs. Brown’s Boys d’Movie	UK/Ire	£9,299,344	€2,004,579	£1,603,663	17%	3
28	Dallas Buyers Club	USA	£4,835,877	€969,518	£775,614	16%	18
52	Endless Love	USA	£1,527,376	€248,842	£199,074	13%	36
22	Muppets Most Wanted	UK/USA	£7,547,269	€1,106,543	£885,234	12%	13
23	Last Vegas	USA	£6,664,359	€911,762	£729,410	11%	19
1	The Lego Movie	USA	£33,981,931	€3,274,305	£2,619,444	8%	1
2	X-Men: Days of Future Past	USA	£26,856,504	€1,860,392	£1,488,314	6%	4
3	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	USA	£23,642,745	€1,735,103	£1,388,082	6%	7
4	The Wolf of Wall Street	USA	£22,267,066	€2,255,559	£1,804,447	8%	2
5	12 Years a Slave	UK/USA/Lux	£20,028,909	€1,701,598	£1,361,278	7%	8
6	Captain America: The Winter Soldier	USA	£19,261,224	€1,290,622	£1,032,497	5%	11
7	Maleficent	UK/USA	£17,364,817	€1,336,994	£1,069,595	6%	10
8	Godzilla	USA/Jap	£17,074,621	€1,244,036	£995,229	6%	12
9	22 Jump Street	USA	£16,554,354	€1,844,764	£1,475,812	9%	5
10	Bad Neighbours	USA	£15,902,287	€1,806,248	£1,444,999	9%	6