WEAK BOX OFFICE PERFORMANCE OF IRISH FILMS - WHO CARES?

Interesting article in today's Irish Times newspaper called Box office breakdown. Basically it states what everyone knows - Irish films aren't good enough to do well in our cinemas. So what I say!

Who in their right mind expects Irish films to do well when most are complete rubbish? The last year has seen a lot of new home releases but they just didn't connect with audiences. Is this a bad thing? Look at what happened with Once - got mixed reviews here, lasted a few weeks in the cinema (admittedly the digital-to-film print was terrible), won an award in America, and then took $10 million from their box office. So how come the Yanks saw something in this movie and the Irish audience did not? Here's why: IRISH PEOPLE DON'T GIVE A SH*T ABOUT IRISH MOVIES! Once upon a time they did (fifteen years ago) but too few releases and too much rubbish killed off the 'buzz' here for Irish cinema. There are only four kinds of Irish films worth making here: straight-to-DVD (Turning Green); made-for-TV (Eden); arthouse (Garage); and outright multiplex titles (Shrooms). The rest are a waste of time. They have no audience. People who go to the IFI or Lighthouse would not watch most Irish films. People who go to the Cineworld or IMI would not watch most Irish films. The only Irish films that most people would readily watch in their local cinemas are the ones that are not really Irish. Stuff like Leap Year, Lassie, Fifty Dead Men Walking, and Becoming Jane. Titles that are made here by foreign producers. Then there are the recent no-budget titles which should never have got a cinema release here: 8.5 hours, Situations vacant, W.C., and Trafficked. These films are too mainstream to appeal to most arthouse fans and too cheap to appeal to the multiplex crowd. Then there is the recent state-funded stuff that did badly at the box office. The article notes that Zonad did surprisingly bad. Really? How come no-one noticed this film's poor quality at the festival screenings? You don't need to be a cinephile to realise that Zonad is the biggest heap of Irish sh*te in years. What Shoot the Cabbage would love to see is a breakdown of the cost of all the recent IFB features and how much they didn't make at the box office. Also, should the IFB really be funding 'commercial' films such as Zonad and Perrier's Bounty? Surely these films should be privately funded? If the producers cannot receive funding from private investors then these kind of films shouldn't get made. That would be a good thing!