Film fans welcomed a dramatic reduction in ticket prices as most cinemas nationwide charged just €4 for a ticket as part of National Cinema Day on Saturday.
After watching Barbie at the Savoy Cinema on O’Connell St, Dublin, Chantelle Maritz praised the initiative as an incentive to attend. “I heard about it on the radio during the week,” said Ms Maritz. “Normally, movies are so expensive. I don’t actually go to the cinema because it costs €11 or €12.
“€4? Brilliant. I just came and asked for whatever movie is showing. I came on my own. They sent me to Barbie which was lovely.”
Fiachra Byrne says he is a semi-regular cinema-goer but that he made a concerted decision to go to the Savoy on Saturday because of the reduction. “I saw it on Instagram,” he explained.
“I’d normally go two or three times a month, but definitely today because it was so cheap. I’d pay anywhere between €10-15 regularly. It’s class, I enjoyed it.”
Alan Heard, from the UK, was a tourist in Dublin with a few hours to kill before heading to the airport to travel home. He says he had no idea it was National Cinema Day and was pleasantly surprised when he saw the price.
“I was expecting it to be around €16,” he said. “In the UK, I normally pay about £10, so that’s €12 or €13. I didn’t say anything when I saw the price in case he might have made a mistake!
“It was extremely cheap for a cinema ticket.”
Fís Éireann, also known as Screen Ireland, came up with the initiative, with 200,000 admissions last year, making it the biggest cinema-going day of 2022. It said 99 per cent of cinemas in the Republic of Ireland took part this year.
It said Irish people are among the most enthusiastic cinema-goers in Europe. “For many years, Ireland has had the highest cinema attendance per capita in Europe. The Republic of Ireland also has the highest screen density per capita of any European country, with an average of one cinema screen per 10,000 people,” it said.
Désirée Finnegan, Chief Executive of Screen Ireland, thanked audiences for their loyalty. “The support from Irish audiences has made the incredible success of Irish film in the past year possible,” she said.
Some of the movies shown yesterday included Irish titles such as Ballywalter, starring Patrick Kielty, which had special previews in advance of its release. Irish comedy Apocalypse Clown also opened this weekend to coincide with National Cinema Day.
Participating cinemas included Arc Cinemas, Carrick Cineplex, Century Cinemas, Cineworld, Eclipse Cinemas, Eye Cinema, Gate Cinemas, IFI Cinemas, IMC Cinemas, Light House Cinema, Movies@ Cinemas, Odeon Cinemas, Omniplex Cinemas, Pálás Cinema, Reel Cinemas, and Vue Cinemas.
