In it’s opening weekend, THE MAGDALENE SISTERS grossed over €182,000 from 31 sites at the Irish box-office with an impressive screen average of over €6,000, second only to Disney’s Lilo & Stitch. The film went against industry norm by grossing 55% of it’s box-office from outside Dublin (traditional industry figures are normally based on 60% Dublin/40% rest of Ireland split). Figures increased steadily daily which indicates strong word of mouth. Cinema owners across the country have added that they felt the audience for The Magdalene Sisters have largely been ‘non-regular cinema goers’, and ‘word of mouth has been excellent’. Mark Doherty from Century Cinemas adds that his audience in Letterkenny included ‘a large number of clergy’ also.
The film tells the true story of four girls interned in the Magdalene Asylums and their fight to escape the daily brutality and humiliation showered on them by the Sisters of Mercy. THE MAGDALENE SISTERS won The Golden Lion for Best Film at Venice Film Festival and Discovery Critics Award at Toronto Film Festival earlier this year.
The film’s acclaimed director Peter Mullan, who is best known for his award-winning performance as a recovering alcoholic in Ken Loach's MY NAME IS JOE, said "over the last 170 years, I can't think of a time when the Catholic Church had a lower esteem than what it has now... What began as the odd scandal in the 1980s is now pandemic," "the Catholic Church knows it's going to have to face up to all of the things it has done," said the Scottish director.
THE MAGDALENE SISTERS is at cinemas nationwide in all key towns and cities, rated 15PG.
The film is distributed in Ireland by Eclipse Pictures, and as funded by Film Council of England, Scottish Screen and the Irish Film Board.
