Top Gun: Maverick was most commercially successful movie of the year in Ireland
Tom Cruise plays Captain Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell in Top Gun: Maverick.
A sequel to a Hollywood blockbuster from the 1980s was the biggest hit in Irish cinemas last year taking in over €6m at the box office.
New figures from the Irish Film Classification Office show the action-adventure film was the most commercially successful movie of the year in Ireland.
The film, starring Tom Cruise in a reprise of his role from 36 years earlier as a pilot in the US armed forces, took in almost €6.1m in revenue.
Sequels of hit movies dominated the most popular films screened in the Republic last year with the second highest-grossing film, .
The fifth movie in the highly successful animated Despicable Me/Minions series recorded box office receipts of over €4.8m.
It was followed by another sequel, , starring Robert Pattison in the title role and Irish actor Colin Farrell as Penguin which took in over €4.4m.
surpassed in terms of box office receipts for the opening weekend of its release with revenue of €1.37m compared to around €585,000 for the Tom Cruise film.
The fourth biggest grossing movie in Ireland last year, , with revenue of €3.74m might well have overtaken for the No 1 spot but its release just before Christmas meant its box office receipts were based on just three weeks in the cinema.
The list of top five movies — which was completed with another sequel, in 5th place with receipts of €3.45m — accounted for almost 20% of total income in 2022.
Overall box office revenue from the country’s 110 cinemas last year was just over €92m — which is 23% below their pre-pandemic peak of €119.7m in 2019.
The director of film classification, Ciarán Kissane, said a total of 438 films were certified for release in Irish cinemas in 2022 — up 52% on the previous year when many screens had remained closed for periods due to lockdown restrictions during the pandemic.
“This is indicative of the Irish cinema industry returning to pre-covid levels of theatrical release,” said Dr Kissane.
He claimed further growth was projected for 2023.
However, Dr Kissane — whose role was previously known as the film censor — said the number of DVD titles certified in 2022 had decreased by 26% annually to 1,511.
He claimed such figures were in line with the increasing contraction of the DVD market in the context of streaming and video-on-demand platforms.
The director confirmed that none of his decisions on the classification of films last year had been appealed to the Classification of Films Appeals Board.
A total of 10 complaints from the public about movies were made to the IFCO last year — up from three in 2021 — including complaints relating to the supernatural horror, ; the historical thriller, ; and the Viking epic, .
