The Magdalene Sisters movie heads for box-office record

A HARD-HITTING film examining the gruesome conditions pregnant girls endured in notorious workhouses has sold out at cinemas nationwide.

The Magdalene Sisters opened last Friday and has already received excellent reviews for its no-holds-barred look at life in a Magdalene laundry.

Last week the film grossed over €182,000 from 31 cinemas, second only to Disney's Lilo & Stitch. It's expected to hit 300,000 by the close of this week.

Distributors predict the film will hit the €1 million mark within five weeks, making it one of the biggest-grossing movies ever screened here.Figures have been growing by the day due to film's strong word of mouth appeal, according to the distributors Eclipse Pictures.

"It has been booked out several nights since it opened last week. The reaction outside of Dublin, in cities like Cork and Galway, has been phenomenal" Eclipse spokesperson Niamh McCaul said.

In fact, more people are watching the harrowing film at cinemas outside Dublin when traditionally only 40% of cinema receipts come from screens outside the capital. Word of the film is spreading so quickly that more viewers went to see it on the Tuesday after it opened than on opening night.

Eclipse Pictures also confirmed several cinemas have moved the film to larger screening rooms and cinema owners believe the audience for the film have largely been non-regular film goers.

The audience has been very diverse and Mark Doherty, from Century Cinemas, said that viewers in Letterkenny included a large number of priests.

The film tells the true story of four girls interned in the Magdalene industrial homes and their fight to escape the brutality and humiliation of the Sisters of Mercy.

The Magdalene Sisters won The Golden Lion award for best film at the Venice Film Festival and the Discovery Critics Award at the Toronto Film Festival earlier this year.

Commenting on the box-office success, film director Peter Mullan, 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.

"The Church knows it's going to have to face up to all of the things it has done."

The film has a 15PG rating.