The Magdalene Sisters has smashed through the €1 million barrier at the Irish box office. It’s total to date is €1,051,802 and indications are that it will play in Irish cinemas right into the New Year.
Acclaimed Scottish director, Peter Mullan, is delighted with the film’s success. “I think a lot if it is because Ireland has changed so much in the past 10 to 15 years, so maybe the time is right to stand back and take stock of what the country was formerly like”. Mullan, best known to audiences for his award-winning performance as a recovering alcoholic in Ken Loach’s My Name is Joe, says “what’s incredible, is we’re getting reports that the audience (in Ireland) is of all age groups and that a large number of the clergy are going to see it”.
The film is currently playing on 36 screens and it’s screen average remains impressive into its 5th week on release. Niamh McCaul from Eclipse Pictures, the film’s distributor in Ireland says, “we’re absolutely thrilled with the success of The Magdalene Sisters. It's the biggest Irish film since Angela’s Ashes and is the biggest Irish film in 2002. It is really holding it’s own against the Hollywood blockbusters and many exhibitors expect it to play up until and during the Christmas period. It has generated unprecedented word of mouth and bodes well for the future of Irish film industry”.
Ed Guiney, of Dublin-based production company, Element Films (formerly Temple Films) and executive producer of The Magdalene Sisters said, "It’s fantastic that The Magdalene Sisters has passed the €1 million mark in Ireland. Peter Mullan has made a deeply moving and uncompromising film that deserves to be seen by as many people as possible. I'm delighted that audiences in Ireland have responded so positively to it."
"This is an excellent result for The Magdalene Sisters and we congratulate everybody involved in bringing this important Irish story to the screen" Moira Horgan, Irish Film Board.
The Magdalene Sisters, which has received unanimous acclaim from critics and press has also been nominated for Best European Film at the European Film Academy Awards, which will take place on Saturday 7th December. 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 tells a powerful and emotional journey, charting several years in the young lives of four ‘fallen women’ who find themselves incarcerated in a Magdalene laundry. It is estimated that as many as 30,000 women were detained at Magdalene Asylums throughout Ireland. The last laundry closed in 1996.
Further information is available from Eclipse Pictures
