Australian feature film production activity

Number produced, total production budgets and average budget per film (current* and 2016 dollars), 1970/71–2015/16

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 30 films in the 1980s, 27 films in the 1990s and 31 films in the first decade of the 2000s.

Converted to 2016 dollars, total production budgets for Australian feature films averaged around $25 million annually in the 1970s, increasing to over $170 million during the 1980s and 1990s, and increasing further to $259 million in the 10 years to 2009/10.

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 2008/09, the total production budgets figure was the highest on record ($445 million in 2016 dollars), principally because of the high-budget titles Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole and Happy Feet Two. More recently, results were boosted by films such as The Great Gatsby (2011/12), Mad Max: Fury Road (2012/13) and Gods of Egypt (2013/14).

In 2015/16, total production budgets increased by 60 per cent over the previous year, despite a 22 per cent drop in the number of titles made, due largely to the high-budget films Hacksaw Ridge and Nest.

The average budget for Australian features has risen in each decade since the 1970s. In the 1970s it was $1.62 million (in 2016 dollars), which more than tripled to $5.68 million during the 1980s, and grew to $6.61 million in the 1990s and $8.55 million in the first decade of the 2000s.