Australian feature film
production activity

Number produced, total production budgets and average budget per film (current* and 2019 dollars), 1970/71–2018/19

Over the past four decades Australia has built a solid feature production industry. The average number of Australian features produced annually has grown from 14 films per year in the 1970s to 31 in the 2000s and to 38 in the current decade.

Converted to 2019 dollars, total production budgets for Australian feature films averaged around $27 million annually in the 1970s, increasing to over $194 million during the 1980s and 1990s, and increasing further to $284 million in the 2000s. 

The total budgets for Australian features can fluctuate annually, due largely to the impact of a small number of foreign-financed, usually high-budget, features. In 2012/13, the total production budgets figure was the highest on record ($535 million in 2019 dollars), principally because of the high-budget title Mad Max: Fury Road.

In 2016/17, total production budgets (in 2019 dollars) increased by 61 per cent over the previous year, due largely to the high-budget films Peter Rabbit, Hotel Mumbai and Winchester. The number of titles produced increased by 37 per cent over the previous year.

The average budget for Australian features has risen in each decade since the 1970s. In the 1970s it was $1.78 million (in 2019 dollars), which more than tripled to $6.23 million during the 1980s, and grew to $7.25 million in the 1990s and $9.38 million in the first decade of the 2000s. The average budget in the current decade is $8.61 million (in 2019 dollars).