Ireland’s domestic films fail to draw a crowd at cinemas

European research finds 95pc of visits are for foreign-produced movies

According to the research, 'Calvary' starring Kelly Reilly and Brendan Gleeson, is one of the few Irish films to perform well at the box office both locally and internationally

John Burns

While Irish films are finding bigger audiences internationally, they are not being well supported at home, according to the initial findings of a new study. Irish people go to the cinema on average three times a year, but 95pc of visits are to see a foreign-produced film, it finds.

The findings are in the European research project CresCine, which is looking at the challenges facing small film markets. It examined seven small film-producing countries, including Ireland, Portugal and Denmark, between 2014 and 2022.