Profit after tax at Element Pictures fell by 49% to €2.32 million

Profit after tax for the multi-award-winning production company behind the film adaptations of Sally Rooney’s Normal People and Conversations with Friends fell 49% to €2.32 million last year.

Profits of €2.32 million for Dublin-based Element Pictures Ltd last year saw cumulative profits rise from €7.99 million to €10.32 million.

The after-tax profit of 2.32 million euros for 2023 is followed by an after-tax profit of 4.54 million euros for 2022.

The company’s liquid assets more than tripled last year from 857,129 euros to 3.3 million euros.

Last year, Element Pictures’ conveyor belt of quality dramas continued with the release of Poor Things, starring Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo.

The film grossed $117.6 million worldwide, while Emma Stone won Best Actress at the Academy Awards in March, where the film was nominated for 11 Oscars, including Best Picture.

In 2022, the company, co-founded by Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe, confirmed that it had sold a majority stake to global production and distribution giant Freemantle, which will allow it to “expand its capabilities and continue to produce television and films for an international audience.” “.

A note accompanying the new accounts said the directors were “pleased to announce a trading profit for the year and are confident of consolidating this position in the year ahead”.

The company achieved a profit in 2023, taking into account non-cash depreciation costs of €176,361 and a foreign currency loss of €191,532.

The balance sheets state that the company had forgiven related corporate loans amounting to 2.46 million euros in the previous year because the directors believed that “there was no chance of these loans being collectible.”

The loans written off amounted to €2.26 million at Picture Palace Cinema Ltd and €196,352 at Light House Cinema Ltd. Picture Palace Cinema operates the Pálás arthouse cinema in Galway city.

Picture Palace Cinema Ltd’s most recent financial statements show that the company made a loss of €618,717 in 2023.

Element Pictures’ recent film releases include Yorgos Lanthimos’ Kinds of Kindness, starring Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons and Willem Dafoe.

Lanthimos’ next collaboration with Element Pictures is Bugonia, starring Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons, and is scheduled to hit theaters in November 2025.

The number of people employed at the company increased from 33 to 37 last year. Andrew Lowe and Ed Guiney sit on the board along with Andrea Scrosati, Christian James Vesper and Stuart Jackson and directors’ salaries totaled €503,000 last year.

The company recorded a pre-tax profit of €2.64 million last year and generated an after-tax profit of €2.3 million after incurring a corporate tax charge of €311,045.

Reporting by Gordon Deegan