10/11/2015 - John Crowley’s film is the biggest opener since Neil Jordan’s Michael Collins

Riding a surge of critical acclaim, John Crowley’s Brooklyn [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] claimed a slice of box-office history when it opened with £432,000 in Ireland, making it the biggest domestic opening since Neil Jordan’s Michael Collins in 1996. In the process, it also overtook recent Irish hits The Guard [+see also:
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trailer
interview: John Michael McDonagh
film profile] (£408,711), Angela’s Ashes (£397,978), In Bruges [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (£344,481) and Calvary [+see also:
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making of
interview: John Michael McDonagh
film profile] (£330,835). The 87 Irish screen count for Brooklyn made it the widest Irish release. With the UK and Ireland combined, the film collected an estimated £1,041,278 over the weekend.

Brooklyn had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and has since played at the Toronto International Film Festival and had a gala presentation at the BFI London Film Festival. The film has been nominated for five British Independent Film Awards, including Best Actress (Saoirse Ronan), Best Screenplay (Nick Hornby), Best Supporting Actress (Julie Walters), Best Supporting Actor (Domhnall Gleeson) and Outstanding Achievement in Craft (Fiona Weir – casting). 

Set in the early 1950s, Brooklyn is the story of a young woman who moves from small-town Ireland to Brooklyn, New York, where, unlike home, she has the opportunity for work and for a future – and love, in the shape of an Italian-American. When a family tragedy brings her back to Ireland, she finds herself confronting a dilemma – a choice between two men and two countries. 

The movie is a BBC Films, Telefilm Canada, Ingenious, Irish Film Board, British Film Institute and SODEC (Canada) presentation of a Wildgaze Films (UK), Finola Dwyer Productions (UK), Parallel Films (Ireland) and Item 7 (Canada) co-production.