It is a celebratory weekend for Irish film as John Michael McDonagh’s Calvary goes straight in at number 1. The Brendan Gleeson starring drama opened with an amazing €5,520 at its 65 locations for a whopping €358,790 opening weekend. There’s a strong appetite for good Irish films out there and this one delivered in quality and audience. This is down on the figures for The Guard (McDonagh and Gleeson’s last collaboration) but given the more serious subject matter this is to be expected. The film should continue to do well based on critical and audience reactions to date.
Last week’s number one is this week’s number 2 as Darren Aronofsky’s Noah drops 46% to take €136k for the weekend. That haul is good enough to push the film past the half million mark at the Irish box office. That’s a big drop, but pales in comparison to the 60% hit it took in the US. With Easter next weekend this religious themed film should continue to make a decent return.
Holding strong at number 3 is the animated sequel Rio 2, picking up a solid €2,046 per location to bring in a further €127k. The 35% drop is about average for an animated film in its second week, and while the film will not match The Lego Movie numbers it is on course for a respectable haul. With kids off for a few days over Easter this may well get a minor bump next weekend.
Dropping two places is Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier at 4. The film cruised past the €1m mark earning €123k in its third weekend. That’s enough to see it overtake Thor: The Dark World in the moneyhaul stakes making it the second most successful Phase 2 release after Iron Man 3. With The Amazing Spider-Man 2 opening this week we expect Cap to suffer a big drop next weekend, but it has done very well so far.
Down one to this weeks number 5 is the Veronica Roth adaptation Divergent. The film fell 44% in its second weekend to take €88k from Irish audiences. This takes the film to the €300k mark but it is unlikely to go much beyond €400k if this trend continues. Audiences are divided with fans of the book liking the adaptation, but newcomers feeling lost as crucial plot-points are saved for further outings. The film has done well enough in the States to greenlight the sequel so audiences may yet be rewarded for their patience.
Also dropping one to number 6 is Disney’s Muppets Most Wanted. The film is down 45% to earn €82k in its third official release weekend, bringing its lifetime gross to €723k.
The second new release of the weekend, and in at number 7, is Hammer horror The Quiet Ones. The film grossed €35k from 42 locations, for a very poor €809 per location. Given the very poor word of mouth and the low visibility marketing campaign the box-office would appear fair, but it must be worrisome for Hammer after their last film The Woman in Black performed so well.
At number 8 is the third new entry of the week, the Gareth Evans directed, Indonesian action film spectacular The Raid 2. Given the high-profile marketing campaign, the cult success of the first film, and the general hype surrounding this release, it made a very disappointing €28k over the weekend. The paltry 17 locations, foreign language base, and 18 rating will not have helped but the audience for this should have come front-loaded as the release had such anticipation in film circles. That said it is a spectacular film and will do very well in the home-video market.
In its sixth week Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel falls to number 9. This weekend added a further €22k to its staggering box-office bringing it up to €757,738.
At 10 and still hanging in there after 9 weeks is the box-office sensation of 2014 Warner Animation’s The Lego Movie. Given its longevity in the charts this weekend’s figure is a very low €18k, but given the film’s total of €3,274,305, we won’t begrudge it its place in the Top Ten.
The big release of the Easter weekend has to be Sony’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which actually opens on Wednesday. The film offers spectacular comic-book action, coupled with a lovely central romance, so it should find a big audience. Film of the week is a tough choice between the Tom Hardy vehicle Locke and the lovely Swedish film We Are The Best. Both are great films, but both are on limited release which will hurt their box-office chances. Also out next weekend is the disappointing Irish drama The Sea (based on the John Banville novel), comedy caper film The Love Punch (starring Pierce Brosnan and Emma Thompson), and the Michael Cera staring Chilean thriller Magic Magic.
| Rank | Title |
| 1 | Calvary |
| 2 | Noah |
| 3 | Rio 2 |
| 4 | Captain America: The Winter Soldier |
| 5 | Divergent |
| 6 | Muppets Most Wanted |
| 7 | Quiet Ones, The |
| 8 | Raid 2, The |
| 9 | Grand Budapest Hotel, The |
| 10 | Lego Movie, The |
Source: Rentrak