Rotten Potatoes

TARA BRADYon the idiosyncrasies of the Irish box office

CAN YOU handle the excitement as we unveil Ireland's top 10 films of 2011? True, it's not the official, sanctioned chart. But with only hours to go until 2012, we're on pretty safe ground when we announce, to the surprise of no one, that Bridesmaidswas the top-grossing movie in Ireland this year, with a take of €4,310,172.

We liked Bridesmaids.We're happy that with a fraction of the production budget it won out over the Harry Potterjuggernaut: Harry Potter The Deathly Halllows: Part 2(3D 2D) was Ireland's second favourite film, with €4,223,619 in box office receipts.

Statistically, this makes the Irish pretty damned weird. Kristen Wiig and chums placed nowhere in most European and Asian territories; they fared better in the UK, managing eighth place in the yearly chart, but 15 per cent of those tickets were actually bought here. Bang. Hibernian Comedy Fever strikes again.

In this spirit, Irish screen averages for The Hangover: Part 2were, unsurprisingly, among the best on the planet; it was our fourth favourite film, one place higher than it managed in the UK.

Nationalism loomed large over the UK and Irish box office this year. Britain flew the flag for local Oscar winner The King's Speechby buying up more than €67 million in tickets. Speech was the second biggest grossing film in the UK this year after Potter.We weren't nearly so keen; it placed sixth here with €2,796,927.

Similarly, les rosbifs turned out in their droves for Johnny English Reborn, the 10th most popular film in the UK with more than €24 million in the coffers. The same parody fell well short of the final chart here, with a take just under €1.6 million.

We all loved The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1(No 7 here and there), Rise of the Planet of the Apes(No 11 in all territories) and The Inbetweeners. The latter finished at No 3 in the UK but the absence of a publicity campaign hurt the film in Ireland, where it finished in fifth place.

The Guard, understandably enough, accounts for the biggest chart swing between the Republic and the UK. The Irish indie finished in third place here with a staggering €4,026,644. But that was only enough to put it in 59th place in the UK totals.

We're pleading recession to excuse some of our other choices. The UK's favourite animated picture this year was the superb Tangled(No 9 in the UK chart with €28.5 million). But we liked The Smurfs.Correction. We LOVED The Smurfs.It was our eighth favourite flick, but only the 13th favourite in the UK overall.

For shame. At least the averages for Driveand Black Swanwere better here.

Final Irish countdown: Bridesmaids, €4.3 million; Harry Potter,€4.2 million; The Guard, €4 million; The Hangover 2, €3.9 million; The Inbetweeners,€3 million; The King's Speech, €2.8 million; Twilight: Breaking Dawn,€2.4 million; The Smurfs, €2.08 million; Pirates of the Caribbean, €2.06 million; Transformers 3, €2.04 million.