Lighthouse Cinema reveals most their most popular films of 2023

Smithfield’s Lighthouse Cinema has revealed its 10 most popular films of 2023 based on ticket sales.

Interestingly, 5 of the Lighthouse’s most popular films also appear on our list of the best films of 2023.

10th place went to the Oscar-nominated drama Aftersun, which saw a strong performance in the early part of 2023 following Paul Mescal’s Oscar nomination for the film.

The 9th most popular film was The Boy and The Heron, the latest film from legendary Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki.

The strong performance of The Boy and The Heron is made all the more impressive by the film not showing in Irish cinemas until December 27th, with fans flocking to the cinema in their droves to see what may well be the final film from the Japanese genius.

Oscar-nominated psychodrama Tár took 8th slot, while the Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense landed at the number 7 slot.

The Jonathan Demme-directed concert film was shown in the cinema to mark the 40th anniversary of the iconic film, with widespread reports of people dancing in front of the screen during showings of the film.

Martin Scorsese’s latest epic Killers Of The Flower Moon saw the 6th-highest number of admissions, while the Oscar-tipped Past Lives had the 5th highest crowd.

The love-it-or-hate-it Saltburn enjoyed a strong performance, landing in at number four, with local man Barry Keoghan starring in the film undoubtedly a factor in the film playing so well with a Dublin crowd.

Wes Anderson’s out-of-this-world sci-fi dramedy Asteroid City took the number 3 slot, but there are no prizes for guessing what numbers one and two were.

2023 was dominated by the unlikely double bill of Barbenheimer, and Oppenhimer and Barbie were the number two and number one most-viewed films at the Lighthouse cinema last year.

Barbie became the highest-grossing film in Irish box office history unadjusted for inflation, and staff at the Lighthouse played into the fact that people were there to enjoy the double bill.

Anecdotal evidence recalls seeing people dressed in pink heading into Oppenheimer screenings and people wearing porkpie hats and suspenders heading into screenings of Barbie.

In July, the cinema distributed “Team Greta” and “Team Nolan” buttons, which allowed fans to voice their support for their favourite film, with the buttons selling out.

The July 21st release of both Barbie and Oppenheimer resulted in the busiest weekend ever for the Lighthouse cinema, with 6,418 people taking in a film at the cinema that particular weekend.

Oppenheimer also made cash registers ring at the Irish Film Institute in Temple Bar, with the cinema stating that Oppenheimer was the most successful film in the history of the cinema.

The IFI trumpeted the fact that they were the only cinema in Ireland capable of projecting the film in 70mm, the preferred format of director Christopher Nolan.