Australian Film – Measuring Success

Australian Film Success of Australian Film has been largely determined by box office receipts when it’s not busy depressing us with films about cancer and people who collapse in gutters with needles in their arms, Australian films are cringe-inducing ‘g’day mate’comedies. The sort of face palm productions geared towards jokes featuring things as stereotypically nationalistic as shrimps on a barbie (thanks, Paul Hogan). (Buckmaster 2014)

Importance of the Industry Feature films remain critical flagships to any national film industry. can be highly commercial endeavours perform symbolic functions at a national level big screen based sound and imagery. conduct a dialogue with domestic audiences as well as showcase key aspects of Australia in the global film festival circuit launchpads for the careers of many Australian writers, directors, actors and technical crew..

Table 1. Australia vs. Foreign: 2000–2011 local film market shares as percentage % of box office/ admissions. 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Australia 4.9% 3.5 1.3 2.8 4.6 4.0 3.8 5.0 4.5 3.9 France 28.9 39.0 34.0 34.8 38.4 36.8 44.7 36.6 45.4 35.7 40.9 Germany 12.5 16.2 11.9 17.5 23.8 17.1 25.8 19.9 26.2 27.4 16.8 21.8 UK 21.0 11.7 15.4 12.4 33.0 19.0 28.0 31.0 16.5 24.0 36.2 Italy 19.4 22.0 20.3 24.7 29.3 24.4 32.0 37.5 Spain 10.0 18.0 14.0 15.8 13.4 17.0 13.5 13.3 16.0 12.7 15.0 Japan 31.8 27.0 41.3 53.2 47.7 59.5 56.9 53.6 54.9 South Korea – 45.2 49.7 54.2 55.0 64.2 50.8 42.1 48.8 46.5 52.0 China 60.0 45.9 56.6 56.3 India 92.5 86.0 76.5 90.5 92.0 89.0 Russia 12.0 27.7 23.3 26.3 25.5 23.9 14.5 Sources: Australia: Screen Australia; Foreign: EAO World Market Trends Focus Reports 2001–2012.

Producers Dilemma Producers are at the heart of the film industry. They commission and/or generate the ideas that fuel the industry’s creative engine. low levels of business sustainability mean that many producers exit the industry early, creating a constant flow of ideas, energy and experience out of the sector A film may take 3-10 years to produce and the producer may only get one shot at it.

Top grossing films Crocodile Dundee (1986) remains the top grossing Australian film at the Australian box office earning over $47.7 million and is the eighth highest earner of all time against all foreign and domestic titles. Only 2 other Australian films occupy places in the top 50 income earners at the Australian box office Australia (2008) at 27th place earning over $37.5 million and Babe (1995) at 30th place earning just over $36.7 million.

Box Office isn’t Everything There is a more informal market, out of sight of the box office. Year after year, hundreds of commercial flops and straight-to-video releases go on to reach massive audiences through informal channels, out of sight of the conventional film industry. Box office doesn’t take into account costs of production

Box office Issues Annual figures don’t take account of the christmas/new year busy period – 31st December cut off date Skewed in favour of countries with higher ticket prices

Film Industry Measures Film exposure creates tourism interest Trade improves relations between countries - cultural exposure consider the number of countries visited, local and international screenings, venue saturation and both domestic and international box office in order to present a more holistic approach to measuring the impact of films in terms of their theatrical presence The largest markets are USA, Australia, Mexico, England, Japan, Canada and Germany

Film Impact Rating

Successful Small Productions Satellite Boy has a very high rating for production cost relative to box office and does generally well in terms of box office domestically. For a small budget film it travels far and plays in many venues It has a relatively high critics rating average as well as excelling in award nominations and wins

Big Budget Films From the top 10 FIR results that the biggest impact films are typically big budget co- productions. the top 5 films are co-productions, and 6 out of the top 10 are co-productions. the top 5 excel in more than one category – particularly in the case of coverage and commercial performance

FIR – Film Impact Rating Using FIR we find that film impact tends to be positively clustered in terms of production budget. Typically a film involving a higher initial investment is generally associated with a bigger subsequent impact