Flopbusters: Hollywood is on its knees as big movies fail at the box office – but Ireland is bucking that trend

Heading to the cinema is becoming a thing of the past around the world. But why do the Irish simply refuse to quit their popcorn-laden evenings in front of a big screen?

Clockwise from top left: Dwayne Johnson in The Smashing Machine, Leonardo DiCaprio in One Battle After Another, Julia Roberts in After the Hunt, Daniel Day-Lewis and Sean Bean in Anemone, Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie in A Big Bold Beautiful Journey

When did you last go to the cinema? While statistics prove that Irish attendance rates continue to buck international patterns, the underlying trend is obvious – cinema-going is facing an existential crisis.

Since the mass arrival of Netflix and other streamers in the 2010s, film studios and producers have been under increased pressure as their slice of the visual entertainment market shrinks.