By Gordon Deegan
That’s nice…the runaway global success of Brendan O’Carroll’s foul mouthed mammy, Agnes Browne resulted in Brendan O’Carroll and his wife, Jennifer Gibney sharing a dividend windfall of €1.3m last year.
The dividend payout by Boc-Pix Ltd brings to €4.2m the couple has received in dividends from O’Carroll firms over a three year period.
New accounts show that the two shared a dividend of €1.3m from O’Carroll’s Boc Pix Ltd in the 12 months to the end of August 2017.
This followed the two sharing dividends of €865,760 in 2016 from their Mrs Brown Boys Ltd and this followed a payout of €2.04m in 2015.
The new accounts for Boc Pix Ltd show that the firm recorded a profit of €337,195 in 2017 and this 53% down on the profits of €719,339 enjoyed in 2016.
The €1.313m dividend last year by Boc-Pix Ltd followed a modest dividend payout of €16,643.
As a result of the dividend payout, the cash pile at the firm decreased from €1.08m to €318,152 in 2017.
The dividend pay out resulted in the company’s accumulated profits plummeting from €980,944 to €4,017 last year.
Boc Pix Ltd’s cash pile more than halved in 2017 going from €1.79m to €843,718.
Accounts for O’Carroll’s UK firm, BOC Productions Ltd show that accumulated profits increased to £94,554 while its cash-pile totalled £157,500.
The accounts outlining the dividend payouts give further evidence of Mr O’Carroll’s wealth from Mrs Brown - at an awards ceremony in Dublin, the 63 year old Finglas native quipped that he is not a millionaire but a multi-millionaire.
The Dubliner’s career is continuing on an upward trajectory with his new BBC One quiz show ‘For Facts Sake’ debuting this week.
Away from TV, 2018 has already been very lucrative for O’Carroll.
O’Carroll generates much of his income from touring and has completed a 26 date Mrs Brown’s Boys tour of Australia and New Zealand
The tour would have generate millions for O’Carroll and Gibney - who plays Cathy Brown in the hit show - through their Australian firm, Mrs Brown’s Boys Australia Pty Ltd.
This is based on Pollstar figures for the 3Arena in Dublin last year where it shows that Mrs Brown’s Boys generated €1.27m at the box office after entertaining 31,069 over five performances between December 14th and December 17th last.
The Dublin comedian donated the proceeds of one of the performances to a number of charities including Peter McVerry Trust, Childline and the St Vincent de Paul.
The appeal of Mrs Brown’s Boys shows no sign of abating with O’Carroll’s Mrs Brown’s Boys Christmas Special the most watched TV programme in Ireland for Christmas 2017.
This followed 695,000 watching the show on RTE on Christmas Day and this is added to 6.8m who watched the show on BBC1.
The show’s global success has sparked a minor industry in itself.
Fans of the show can now purchase Mrs Brown’s Boys calendars, greeting cards, t-shirts, hats, mugs, t-pots, towels, key chains, magnets, badges, tea pots, tea towels and even wooden spoons.
DVDs sales have been a major money spinner for the O’Carroll business with worldwide DVD sales of Mrs Brown’s Boys passing the five million mark since the release of the first of nine Mrs Brown DVDs in 2011.
Throughout 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 around one and half million fans witnessed first hand the hilarity of the Mrs Brown’s Boys live tours.
The success is not bad for someone who left school at the age of 12 and then tried a number of occupations of milkman, painter-decorator and pirate radio disc-jockey before becoming an entertainer.
O’Carroll’s role as entertainer involves him being an actor/director, script writer, playwright as well as a stand-up comic.
