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Box office: Australian share

Australian films’ share of the Australian box office, 1977−2008

Next update February 2010

Australian-produced feature films earnt $35.5 million or 3.8 per cent of the total Australian box office in 2008 (which includes all Australian films earning box office in 2008, irrespective of their original year of release). This represents a fall from 4 per cent the previous year and is below the 10-year average of 4.4 per cent.

Only once in that 10-year period did the Australian share reach 10 per cent: in 1994, with the success of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and Muriel's Wedding. In 2001, a record $63.4 million was earnt by local features, including Moulin Rouge, Lantana, The Man Who Sued God and Crocodile Dundee in LA, but this represented only 7.8 per cent of the total box office that year.

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

	The years where Australian films gained at least 10 per cent of the local box office (and the films responsible) were:
1977	Caddie, The Last Wave, Eliza Fraser, The Mango Tree
1981	Gallipoli, Mad Max 2, Puberty Blues
1982	The Man from Snowy River, The Year of Living Dangerously
1986	Crocodile Dundee
1988	Crocodile Dundee II, The Man from Snowy River II
1994	The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert; Muriel’s Wedding

	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%

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

Notes: Figures are in current dollars (i.e. not adjusted for inflation) and per calendar year. They are based on annual data released the following January and do not reflect subsequent updates by the MPDAA.