Accumulated profits at the entertainment firm owned by Hollywood A-lister Paul Mescal last year increased to €1.199m.
New accounts filed by the actor’s Castle Dawson Pictures Ltd show that the company recorded post tax profits of €34,556 in the 12 months to the end of September last.
The modest profits for last year are a small fraction of the post tax profits of €1.02m in the prior year.
Mescal – who turned 30 in February – has been busy this year on the film set where he is playing Beatle Paul McCartney in Sam Mendes’s ambitious series of movies about The Beatles.
The abridged accounts for Castle Dawson Picture state that the main activity of the company is the provision of acting and support activities to entities involved in the performing arts.
The firm paid out no dividends last year after paying out a dividend of €333,333 to its sole owner, Paul Mescal, the prior year.
The firm’s cash funds decreased sharply last year from €1.24m to €146,642 after the firm provided a loan of €1.05m to the Hamnet star in November 2024.
The loan – which has an interest rate of 4% a year – resulted in debtors owing the firm €1.068m at the end of last September.
Documents show that Mescal signed off on the loan facility to himself with his firm on November 18, 2024 only three days after the release of Gladiator II here on November 15, 2024.
Gladiator II was released worldwide in November 2024 and Mescal’s role as Lucius Verus helped Gladiator II to a worldwide box-office of $462.2m.
When commenting on casting Mescal for the role of Lucius, Ridley Scott said: “He was a special find. He was absolutely perfect.”
Gladiator recorded the 5th highest box office of 2024 in Ireland at €3.67m.
Though only filed to the Companies Office in recent days, Mescal and his mother and author Dearbhla signed off on the accounts as directors on April 14.
Mescal 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.
Mescal has a 100% shareholding in the company and the accounts show that at the end of September last, its current assets – made up of cash and moneys owed by debtors – totalled €1.2m.
Seeking to capitalise on his status, the former Kildare minor football captain incorporated Castle Dawson Pictures Ltd on November 23, 2020.
The company, due to its small size, is not required to disclose the revenues it recorded during the year.
Mescal’s career has been on a skywards trajectory since his debut screen performance in Normal People.
Mescal learnt his acting trade at Trinity College Dublin’s The Lir Academy. Such was the impact Mescal had on TV viewers of Normal People that he made O’Neills shorts one of the most sought after fashion items at the time.
Reporting by Gordon Deegan
