Element Pictures Ltd, the producers of the screen adaptations of Sally Rooney’s Normal People and Conversations with Friends, returned to profit last year.
Accounts for Element Pictures show it recorded pretax profits of €1.12 million after sustaining losses of €793,832 in 2020.
The production company is preparing for the upcoming release of The Eternal Daughter starring Tilda Swinton with Martin Scorsese as executive producer. Next year it releases Poor Things starring Oscar-winning actor Emma Stone.
Earlier this year the firm, cofounded by Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe, confirmed that it had sold a majority stake to global production and distribution giant Fremantle.
Element Pictures has offices in Dublin, London and Belfast andlast year saw its accumulated profits increase from €2.39 million to €3.44 million. During the same period, its cash funds rose by €585,676, from €1.88 million to €2.47 million. The €1.1 million in pretax profit takes account of non cash depreciation costs of €100,607.
Numbers employed last year increased by one to 28 and staff were engaged in administration and film production services.
Directors’ pay last year totalled €1.045 million made up of pension contributions of €1.02 million and remuneration of €24,000. This followed zero paid to directors in 2020 by the firm.
Figures separately published by Revenue show that Element Pictures last year secured Section 481 tax relief of €1million-€2 million for Conversations with Friends and for the film The Dry. A connected firm, Element Pictures Productions Two Ltd, secured tax relief of €1 million-€2 million for The Drowning.
At the end of last year, €100,000 was repayable to each of the two founding directors, Edward Guiney and Andrew Lowe.
The firm has had a string of box office and critically-acclaimed hits in recent years. The Favourite was produced for $15 million (€14.6m) and enjoyed a worldwide box office of $95 million with Olivia Colman scooping an Oscar for her performance in the black comedy. The success of The Favourite followed on from the global success of the Oscar-winning Room and The Killing of a Sacred Deer which was a breakout hit for Dublin actor Barry Keoghan.
