Profits at Paul Mescal movie company double

Profits at the entertainment firm owned by one of Hollywood’s most in-demand actors, Paul Mescal doubled to €309,051 last year.

New accounts filed by the actor’s Castle Dawson Pictures Ltd show that the company’s post tax profits of €309,051 in the 12 months to the end of October last followed profits of €165,658 in the prior year – an increase of 86%.

At the end of last October, the company was sitting on accumulated profits of €474,309.

The company paid out a €99,861 dividend to Mescal in 2022 but no dividend was paid out last year.

The accounts show that Mescal’s meteoric rise in acting became even more lucrative last year as the Kildare’s man performance in All of Us Strangers earned him rave reviews.

On Monday the first images from Mescal’s role in Ridley Scott’s much anticipated Gladiator II were released.

The movie, due for release in November, is set to catapult the 28 year old – who was photographed out and about in Glastonbury at the weekend – to super-stardom.

When commenting on casting Mescal for the role of Lucius, Ridley Scott said: “He was a special find. He was absolutely perfect.”

Mescal – who signed off on the accounts on June 13 – became a star on both sides of the Atlantic with his award-winning portrayal of Connell Waldron in the lockdown hit drama, Normal People in April and May of 2020.

Last year was a busy one for the Trinity Lir Academy graduate as he worked on Gladiator 2 before finishing filming in January of this year.

Mescal has a 100% shareholding in the company and the accounts show that at the end of October last, its current assets – made up of cash and moneys owed by debtors – totalled €646,804.

Seeking to capitalise on his status, the former Kildare minor football captain incorporated Castle Dawson Pictures Ltd on November 23rd 2020.

The company due to its small size is not required to disclose the revenues it recorded during the year. The accounts also don’t reveal the pay, if any, to Mescal during the year.

Mescal’s career has been on a skywards trajectory since his debut screen performance in Normal People.

Normal People reportedly gave BBC Three its best ever week on the iPlayer while it also set new viewing records on the RTE Player.

Such was the impact Mescal had on TV viewers that he made O’Neills shorts one of the most sought after fashion items of 2020 and 2021 after sporting them on-screen and off-screen in 2020.

Reporting by Gordon Deegan