Neil Jordan, Liam Neeson and Jim Sheridan aren't the only ones to have played their part in Ireland's movie revolution. The broader public, in their addiction to the silver screen, have taken Ireland to the top of the European league of film-going nations.
According to a recent EU survey, cinema attendances rose by 55 per cent between 1990 and 1996 with the equivalent of every member of the population going to 3.2 movies in the latter year.
New multi-screen cinemas continue to shoot up around the State, not just in cities but in small towns and rural areas. The red velvet curtain and flea-bitten seats of the traditional film hall are making way for a new generation of cineplexes, omniplexes and multiplexes.
Ireland's largest cinema company, Ward Anderson, with more than 30 cinemas and 150 screens including the Savoy and Santry Omniplex in Dublin and the Capitol in Cork, is leading the charge, transforming or demolishing old properties to make way for the new, branded complexes. Over the past 18 months it has opened new multi-screen cinemas in Longford, Athlone and Waterford.
A new four-screen cinema is to open in Kilkenny next month with six- and eight-screen cinemas coming on stream in Castlebar and Dundalk before the end of the year. Plans for a 14-screen complex in Dun Laoghaire, Dublin, are being considered by An Bord Pleanala.
The improved facilities have driven up demand and turnover, says Mr Leo Ward, the company's joint owner. "Where we might have taken £3,000 on a film in our old cinema in Killarney, now we would take £12,000."
He admits, however, "it is a huge investment and does carry a risk. It costs about £2.1 million to £2.3 million to put up a fourscreen cinema complex. If you have to borrow that money at 8 per cent interest it's going to take a long, long time to pay it back unless you have a substantial turnover."
Taking risks, however, is something the company is well used to. "In the 50s and 60s when everyone was selling and getting out of cinemas, we were buying," Mr Ward recalls.
However, today he says the market is nearing saturation point. "There is a limit to this. In England there are some areas where there is only one twinscreen cinema serving a population of about 500,000, and we're about to build a six-screen complex in Castlebar with a population of 10,000 to 12,000."
He is particularly concerned about the Dublin market where he says "cinemas are being put up at random". Competition in the market in the north and west of the city will be further intensified by a 15-screen complex, to be run by South African multinational Ster Kinekor, at the proposed Quarryvale shopping centre.
According to UCI's regional manager, Mr Karl Milne, the cinema industry in Dublin is moving into a new phase of development "where cinemas begin to cannibalise each other. Cinemas in a couple of years are not going to be as big or as profitable as today".
UCI's Blanchardstown complex he says has played a part in this process by "eating into the market in town and Santry". It and the Japanese-owned multinational's other cinemas in Tallaght and Coolock now account for up to one quarter of Ireland's estimated 12 million cinema admissions each year.
The pressure of increased competition has led to a greater emphasis on maximising non-ticket revenue, says Mr Milne. Profit margins on refreshments and merchandise are far greater than on tickets, with film distributors taking 40 per cent of the price of the latter and VAT accounting for 12.5 per cent.
Up to 40 per cent of UCI's profits are now made on food, merchandise and other sales. It is estimated each customer spends at least £1 on refreshments.
Outside Dublin, competition is also becoming more intense. The six-screen Gate multiplex will be opened by Cado Ltd in Cork on June 5th.
Mr Andy Beasley, managing director of Cado, which also owns Cinemaworld in Douglas, says he is confident there is enough demand to sustain the new complex. "Cork isn't as bad as Dublin. There's still room for another cinema here."
The cinema boom, however, hasn't been good news for everyone. Smaller outlets are finding it more difficult to survive, mainly because of increased delays in getting new movies from distributors, which issue only a limited number of reels for each release.
"People want to see films straight away, not two or three weeks after they come out in Killarney or Tralee," says Mr Diarmuid O'Shea, owner of the single-screen Oisin Cinema in Killorglin, Co Kerry. "I got Titanic five weeks after its release and it was a complete flop. I had to take it off after the third week."
He says he is "on the verge" of closing the cinema, which has been run by the family since 1938. "Unless something is done to give small independent cinemas like ours a chance, we'll all be gone in a few years."
For many such family-owned cinemas the only means of survival is joining the ranks of the "plexes". Just over a year ago, the O'Gorman family reopened the once three-screen Ormond cinema in Stillorgan, Dublin, as a £1.5 million seven-screen complex with almost 1,000 seats.
Mr Brian O'Gorman, general manager, said the idea was "if we offered more choice it was more likely people would come in and keep coming in. We realised it was the only way forward."
Some critics argue, however, that the growth in multi-screen complexes has, in fact, reduced choice. With the demise of cinemas such as the Light House and Adelphi in Dublin there are fewer theatres willing to show non-commercial or artistic movies.
Furthermore, the cost of going to the cinema has increased in tandem with the multi-screen phenomenon. Average ticket prices have almost doubled in the past five years from £2.60 in 1993 to £4.95 last year.
Whether or not it is good for the consumer, however, the industry agrees the growth in multi-screen cinemas is set to continue.
"We might be ahead of the rest of Europe but we are still behind the US and Australia where people on average go to between four and five movies a year," says Mr Milne of UCI. For Irish cinemas, he says, the message is clear. "It will come down to survival of the fittest. Those who take care of their audiences the best will survive."
