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Box office in Australia for
Australian feature films

Next update March 2018

1977−2016

Feature films under Australian or shared creative control earned $24.1 million or 1.9 per cent of the total Australian box office in 2016 (which includes any film earning box office in 2016, irrespective of its original year of release). This is down on the previous year, when the share was 7.2 per cent, and below the 10-year average of 4.1 per cent.

In 2015, $88.1 million was earned by local features, with a record-breaking four titles each earning over $10 million – Mad Max: Fury Road, The Dressmaker, Oddball and The Water Diviner (released in 2014).

Graph: Australian films share of Australian box office. The following table provides the data.
 

The local films that contributed to the years in which the Australian box office earned 10 per cent or more:
1977 Caddie, The Last Wave, Eliza Fraser, The Mango Tree
1981 Gallipoli, Puberty Blues
1982 The Man from Snowy River, Mad Max 2, The Year of Living Dangerously
1986 Crocodile Dundee, Malcolm
1988 Crocodile Dundee II, The Man from Snowy River II
  1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984
Box office ($m) 8.6 4.7 6.4 14.1 24.2 34.5 16.5 8.7
Share (%) 10.0% 3.9% 5.1% 9.1% 13.9% 16.4% 7.9% 5.6%
  1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992
Box office ($m) 8.8 44.4 16.2 39.8 16.1 6.7 19.1 30.0
Share (%) 5.5% 23.5% 8.9% 17.8% 6.3% 2.4% 5.9% 9.0%
  1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000
Box office ($m) 24.7 46.6 19.8 43.7 28.4 25.6 21.2 54.2
Share (%) 6.4% 9.8% 3.9% 8.3% 4.9% 4.0% 3.0% 7.9%
  2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
Box office ($m) 63.4 41.8 30.3 11.9 23.1 40.0 36.0 35.5
Share (%) 7.8% 4.9% 3.5% 1.3% 2.8% 4.6% 4.0% 3.8%
  2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Box office ($m) 54.8 50.6 42.9 47.9 38.5 26.2 88.1 24.1
Share (%) 5.0% 4.5% 3.9% 4.3% 3.5% 2.4% 7.2% 1.9%

Source: Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia (MPDAA), compiled by Screen Australia.

Notes: Includes Australian productions and productions with overseas partners where creative control is shared (i.e. with a mix of Australians in key creative positions).
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 master report and does not reflect any subsequent updates by the MPDAA.

 

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