Cinema Industry Trends

Data and information

About the data

Cinema statistics in this section have been compiled by Screen Australia primarily from data from the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia (MPDAA).

Information from the MPDAA is available through a subscription service with key data sets selected by Screen Australia and published on this website. These figures are based on annual data released each January and do not reflect any subsequent updates.

Supplementing MPDAA data is information on documentaries provided to Screen Australia by Nielsen EDI (now a service provided by Rentrak) and the distributor Ronin Films.

Australian share of the box office is calculated based on the results for projects under Australian creative control, including those that are 100% foreign financed, as well as projects where creative control is shared between Australian and foreign partners with a balanced mix of Australian and foreign elements in the key creative positions (‘co-productions’).

The classification is unrelated to whether or not a project has been certified as eligible for the Producer Offset, as Screen Australia’s Strategy & Research Unit does not have direct access to this information. Administration of the Offset is governed by the secrecy provisions of the Tax Act and only the taxpayer, in this case the production company, can share information about their tax affairs, including the Offset status of their projects.

‘Entertainment Taxes’ as a source of admissions data

Direct taxes, generally referred to as ‘entertainment taxes’, were imposed by the Commonwealth Government on cinema tickets under various schemes from 1919 to 1953. Taxed cinema admissions were reported in the Entertainment Tax Reports to the Commonwealth Parliament and later in the annual reports of the Australian Commission for Taxation. Both sources have been used by various authors to obtain attendance figures for selected years over the period.

However, these figures understate total attendances as they don’t include admissions not subject to entertainment tax – generally the cheaper cinema seats were exempt. It is difficult to make any reasonable estimate for the number of additional non-taxed admissions between 1919 and 1953 as the application of the tax as well as ticket prices and attendance patterns varied considerably over the period.

The omission of the non-taxable admissions from quoted figures may have been particularly significant in some years, such as during the Depression. In 1932, taxable admissions fell by 46%, although the decrease in total admissions is thought to have been only 23%, with economic hardship driving more people to purchase cheaper (non-taxed) seats.

Sources: Collins 1987, 16-17; 271-272; Smyth 1976, 10-12, 211-212.

Sources and acknowledgements

For this history and background of the cinema industry and admissions, Screen Australia would like to acknowledge the contribution of all the scholars and commentators whose work is listed here in addition to those listed in the source and notes at the end of each table.

Australian Bureau of Statistics (1997). Australian Demographic Trends 1997, Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.
Baxter, John (1970). The Australian Cinema, Angus & Robertson.
Beilby, Peter and Ross Lansell (1982). Australian Motion Picture Yearbook 1983, Thomas Nelson Australia and Roscope Publishers.
Bertrand, Ina (ed.) (1989). Cinema in Australia: A Documentary History, Kensington, NSW: New South Wales University Press. Cinema Papers, March–April 1975.
Collins, Diane (1987). Hollywood Downunder: Australians at the Movies 1896 to the Present Day, North Ryde, NSW: Angus & Robertson.
Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (DCITA). Culture and Recreational portal, www.acn.net.au; accessed May 2002.
King, Barrie and Bruce Hodson (undated). Travelling Exhibitors: The Corricks, National Library of Australia, Guides to the Film Studies Collection; published online; accessed February 2002.
Long, Chris (1993a). ‘Australia’s First Films: Fact and Fables – Part 1’, Cinema Papers no. 91: January.
Long, Chris (1993b). ‘Australia’s First Films: Fact and Fables – Part 2’, Cinema Papers no. 92: April.
Long, Chris (1996). ‘Australian Cinema 1894–1904’, Cinema Papers no. 110: June.
Murray, Scott (ed.) (1991). Le Cinéma Australien, translation under the direction of Claudine Thoridnet, Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou.
Murray, Scott (ed.) (1994). Australian Cinema, St Leonards, NSW: Allen and Unwin in association with the Australian Film Commission.
O’Brien, Terry (1985). The Greater Union Story 1910–1985: 75 Years of Cinema in Australia, Sydney: The Greater Union Organisation Pty Limited.
Pannell, Andrew (1997). ‘Australian Historical Cinema Admissions 1900 to 1996’. Unpublished research compiled for Hoyts.
Royal Commission on the Moving Picture Industry in Australia (1928). Canberra: Government Printer.
Sabine, James (ed.) (1995). A Century of Australian Cinema, Port Melbourne: William Heinemann Australia.
Shirley, Graham and Brian Adams (1983). Australian Cinema: The First Eighty Years, Angus & Robertson.
Smyth, Thomas Mervyn (1976). Economic Aspects of Film Distribution and Exhibition in Australia. Unpublished thesis for Master of Commerce (Hons), University of NSW, Sydney.
Tariff Board (1973). Motion Picture Films and Television Programs 30 June 1973, Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.

Data and information

Yearly overview

Screens and theatres

Historical admissions

Box office

Films screened

World rankings

About the data

‘Entertainment Taxes’ as a source of admissions data

Sources and acknowledgements