The head of Irish Film Classification Office has said Barbie and Oppenheimer brought many people back to Irish cinemas for the first time since COVID-19.
Total box office revenue in Ireland last year was €101 million, up 10% on 2022 figures.
Barbie, Oppenheimer and The Super Mario Brothers Movie were the top three cinema releases in 2023 in terms of box office revenue.
Films originating in the United States (28%) accounted for the most films categorised for Irish cinema release last year, marginally ahead of India (27%).
This was followed by the UK (15%); Rest of the World (13%); Europe (11%) and Ireland (6%).
The office classified 978 DVD and Blu-Ray works in 2023, down from 1,532 the year before.
Just under 280,000 DVD and Blu-Ray discs were sold in Ireland in 2023.
As with the 2023 cinema releases Barbie, Oppenheimer and The Super Mario Brothers Movie also topped the home entertainment charts, based on the number of units sold.
The IFCO certificates available for films and DVDs. Image: IFCODirector of Film Classification Dr Ciarán Kissane told Moncrieff Barbenheimer was a big boost.
"One of the things that I noticed last year was the success of Barbie and Oppenheimer brought people back to the cinema who hadn't been back," he said.
"A lot of people said to me that they hadn't been back since COVID, but that was great in terms of getting people to connect with cinema."
Dr Kissane said his job involves watching a lot of films.
"I spent a good portion of this morning watching an Indian-language film, and one of my assistants is currently in a darkened room watching another Indian-language film," he said.
"A good portion of the work is reviewing content, but I have five assistants who work with me on a part-time basis.
"When you look at the sheer number of titles that we get through in a year, I would have to watch four a day every working day of the year if I was to watch everything that we certify".
How content is ranked
Dr Kissane said determining a classification is ranked across four categories.
"Sexual content, violence, language and drugs - but we also look at thematically what's happening within the film," he said.
"We take into account things like how is it resolved, how are characters treated and within that then you make an assessment about what is the suitable classification.
"The good thing about our legislation, because it goes back to 1923, is it's not as prescriptive as some other legislation that I've had to deal with in my time.
"We clearly set it out and then we do a report on each film and then we publish it on the website".
18 certificates
Just 7% films classified last year received an over-18s certificate. Dr Kissane said there are many factors to this.
"The fact that the internet is there, there's lots of other distribution channels, people aren't going to put material into a cinema where cinema owners are not going to put it on if it's not going to get as large an audience as possible," he said.
"So, there's a commercial reality".
Dr Kissane said Ireland's use of 15A and 16 certificates also kept the number of 18 ratings low.
"The thing about a 15A is it's suitable for 15s and over, but younger audiences can go if it's deemed appropriate by an adult, parent or a guardian," he said.
"It's a space where people can go to the cinema, but equally they can take a view about different pieces of content and what are the issues that are pushing it into a rating.
"But a hard 16 means it's only open for 16s; and I think that's why we've fewer 18s - because we have that hard 16," he added.
The IFCO classified a total of 1,134 theatrical works in 2023.
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