Black day at US box office... as Famine movie grosses just a meagre $44k

IRISH Famine movie Black 47 has bombed in the US despite making more than €1million at the box office here. While the film starring Barry Keoghan and Hugo Weaving had the highest opening weekend of any domestic film in Ireland since Brooklyn in 2015, it grossed just $44,344 in its first three weeks in America.

The film failed to attract audiences on the other side of the Atlantic. It’s ranked a modest 72nd at the US box office since its September release.

The poor attendances will have come as a surprise to the filmmakers who had anticipated success in the US. In advance of the film’s release, producer Macdara Kelleher told RTÉ that the Famine represented a defining moment for Irish-Americans.

‘For Irish-Americans too, it’s the defining moment in their history, and one which is still very deeply felt,’ he said. ‘You can see that in the reactions and commentary online – a lot of people are still quite angry about it. In many cases, they carry with them stories of their grandparents or great-grandparents dying in a ditch or on the crossing [to America], and it represents the loss of their “real” Irishness in some way, which is quite devastating.’

Black 47 is set during the worst year of the Famine, 1847, and follows Connemara-born Irish soldier Martin Feeney – played by Australian actor James Frencheville, pictured, on left, with Weaving – who deserts the British army to return home to a country he no longer recognises and his family torn apart, with his mother having died of starvation and his brother hanged for resisting an eviction.

The Irish language is a focal part of the movie, with British officials keen to stamp out the language while Feeney opts to only speak Irish by the end of the film.

Black 47 also stars Stephen Rea, 71, as an Irishman working as a translator for the British.

The film’s makers have been praised for tackling the difficult subject of the Famine, which is a largely untouched topic. Rea said this is ‘the kind of film we need to be making’ and noted that ‘there’s never been a film about the Famine before and this is a very original take’.

Black 47 also depicts the mass emigration, death, injustice and even food being placed under armed guard, and the desire of the protagonist to pursue a war against landowners and British officials.

The film has been described as ‘harrowingly effective’ and ‘uncompromisingly violent’ as it explores the harsh realities of life during the Great Famine, in which more than one million people died.

Some of the British press criticised the film. The Telegraph said it was ‘overbaked and uber-glum’, but added that the use of ‘Gaeliclanguage’ scenes was a nice touch.