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

 

*All figures are based on information available from Rentrak, up to June 30th, 2014.