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Cinema industry trends

Gross box office by cinema location type, 1988–2012

Archived May 2014

As the number of screens in suburban locations has increased, so has the suburban share of gross box office, from 31 per cent in 1988 to 62 per cent in 2012. The country cinema share has also grown, from 16 per cent to 28 per cent, while the city cinema share has dropped from 39 per cent to just 6 per cent.

Box office by location, 1988

Box office by location, 2012
Graph: Gross box office by location, 1988 and 2012. The table following provides the data.
  City1 Suburbs2 Country3 Other4
$m % $m % $m % $m %
1988 87.0 39% 68.5 31% 34.9 16% 33.4 15%
1989 90.6 35% 85.7 33% 43.1 17% 38.1 15%
1990 86.2 30% 119.4 42% 49.0 17% 29.8 10%
1991 85.4 26% 160.5 49% 68.5 21% 11.4 4%
1992 78.0 23% 171.4 51% 73.3 22% 11.7 4%
1993 79.7 21% 200.2 52% 92.9 24% 15.9 4%
1994 86.5 18% 241.0 51% 117.3 25% 31.0 7%
1995 82.1 16% 265.0 53% 128.7 26% 25.6 5%
1996 73.0 14% 284.0 53% 146.0 27% 34.1 6%
1997 79.8 14% 314.5 54% 163.1 28% 26.5 5%
1998 72.4 12% 351.5 56% 174.6 28% 30.8 5%
1999 72.3 10% 411.5 58% 196.8 28% 23.5 3%
2000 52.1 8% 411.6 60% 188.8 27% 36.9 5%
2001 57.5 7% 483.4 60% 226.9 28% 44.6 5%
2002 55.2 7% 475.7 56% 238.4 28% 75.5 9%
2003 54.1 6% 503.9 58% 257.0 30% 50.8 6%
2004 51.1 6% 507.7 56% 267.1 29% 81.3 9%
2005 47.7 6% 477.2 58% 239.5 29% 53.1 6%
2006 51.1 6% 501.3 58% 237.2 27% 77.0 9%
2007 58.6 7% 546.8 61% 263.7 29% 26.3 3%
2008 63.9 7% 586.3 62% 280.9 30% 14.3 2%
2009 69.2 6% 684.1 63% 318.2 29% 16.0 1%
2010 72.6 6% 710.0 63% 331.5 29% 19.0 2%
2011 66.6 6% 681.0 62% 318.8 29% 27.4 3%
2012 65.5 6% 702.4 62% 320.2 28% 37.4 3%

Source: Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia (MPDAA).

Notes: Figures are in current dollars (i.e. not adjusted for inflation) and per calendar year. Each year is based on annual data released the following January in the MPDAA box office by area report and does not reflect any subsequent updates by the MPDAA. Figures may not total exactly due to rounding.
1. ‘City’ refers to cinemas in the CBDs of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.
2. ‘Suburban’ refers to cinemas in non-CBD areas of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.
3. ‘Country’ refers to cinemas outside Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.
4. ‘Other’ comprises of box office receipts where insufficient details were provided to allow allocation by location.

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