Box office sales up 33 percent at Cucalorus

Despite not having the full use of Thalian Hall and with events scattered across the city, Cucalorus reports a large increase in box office sales for their recent film festival. According to a press release from Cucalorus, their box office sales were up 33 percent over last year.

“It shows two things: It shows that, even in tough times, when it gets harder to put on a good festival, the people who are good at it truly shine and people recognize that.  It’s clearly much harder to put on (a) festival in 2009 than it was in 2008,” said Dan Brawley, director of Cucalorus.

“That our box office numbers went up shows Cucalorus is a strong organization with good, creative leadership. It also demonstrates that Cucalorus has the ability to draw important, significant films and filmmakers.  We brought together some of the most important filmmakers from all over the world to the small, Port City of Wilmington, NC.  It’s truly breathtaking,” Brawley said.

The festival was buoyed by a few films with Oscar buzz, including the movie Precious which stars Gabourdey Sidibie and The Messenger, starring Woody Harrelson.

Filmakers from all over the U.S. came to the festival to attend screenings, including Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York City and international cities represented included Munich, Germany; Tipperary, Ireland, London, Tel Aviv, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Edinburgh, Scotland.

Emails to Cucalorus about specific ticket sales and attendance were not returned.