THE indifferent box-office response in Ireland earlier this year to John Carney's musical romance Once, which won the audience award at Sundance, is a cause for wonder. Compare its meagre earnings of under 150,000 with its subsequent success in the US. After registering a massive screen average of over $45,000 on its limited release, it is now on 120 screens and 13th in the US charts with a gross of over $2.5m.

It will be interesting to see how Lenny Abrahamson's Garage fares when it releases in Ireland this autumn.

Moore's Sicko in rude health after preview

GIVEN a sneak preview at a single New York cinema on 22 June before its general US release last Friday, Michael Moore's documentary Sicko, exposing appalling abuses in America's private healthcare system, grossed a massive $70,000. The Weinstein company followed up by projecting trailers on the outside of buildings near the HQs of health-insurance companies and hospitals in LA, New York, San Francisco, Oakland and Chicago. Sicko's meassage is that allowing healthcare to be run for profit inevitably leads to inequality and abuses.

Mary Harney, please note.

IRELAND: TOP FIVE MOVIES (22-24 June)
1 (-) Shrek 3 (Chris Miller/Raman Hui) 1,097,783 (-)
2(1) Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer (Tim Story) 263,194 ( 1,115,029 to date)
3(2) Ocean's 13 (Steven Soderbergh) 263,194 ( 1,900,284 )
4(3) Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End (Gore Verbinski) 89,933 ( 4,242,056 )
5(-) Captivity (Roland Joffe) 54,720 (-)

Compiled from Sunday Tribune industry sources

US: TOP FIVE MOVIES (22-24 June)
1 (-) Evan Almighty (Tom Shadyac) $32.1m (-)
2(-) 1408 (Mikael Hafstrom) $20.2m (-)
3(1) Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer (Tim Story) $20.2m ($97.6m to date)
4(2) Ocean's 13 (Steven Soderbergh) $11.3m ($91m)
5(3) Knocked Up (Judd Aptow) $10.6m ($109m)