22 01 2018 - Media release 2017 year in review and 2018 preview
L-to-R (top) Lion, War on Waste, (bottom) Superwog Series Pilot and Doctor Doctor series 2
FEATURE FILM Today the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia (MPDAA) released the finalised 2017 box office figures, confirming Academy Award Best Picture nominee Lion was the top earning Australian film at the local box office, taking $29.5m. The result sees Lion go into the history books, becoming the 5th all-time biggest Australian film at the local box office, having propelled Australian films to a 4.1% share in 2017. Lion took $177.94m^ worldwide across 57 territories including Australia.
The top five Australian films at the local box office were rounded out by Red Dog: True Blue ($5.9m in addition to $1.6m taken in 2016), Jasper Jones ($2.7m), Dance Academy ($2.1m) and documentary Mountain ($2m).
Box Office: 2017 Top Ten Australian Films Title Release Date 2017 Gross Cum. Gross Strategy
Lion 19/01/2017 $29,464,072 $29,545,626 Wide
Red Dog: True Blue 26/12/2016 $5,950,186 $7,542,084 Wide
Jasper Jones 2/03/2017 $2,703,451 $2,703,451 Wide
Dance Academy 6/04/2017 $2,114,801 $2,114,801 Wide
Mountain 21/09/2017 $2,023,873 $2,023,873 Specialty
Ali's Wedding 31/08/2017 $1,399,897 $1,402,702 Specialty
Three Summers 2/11/2017 $792,809 $796,168 Mainstream
Hacksaw Ridge 3/11/2016 $689,489 $8,857,936 Wide
Don't Tell 18/05/2017 $409,946 $409,946 Speciality
Rip Tide 14/09/2017 $358,757 $358,757 Speciality
Note: Data courtesy of MPDAA. Blockbuster (400 prints), Wide (200-399 prints), Mainstream (100-199 prints), Speciality (20-99 prints), Limited (0-19 prints).
Collectively Australian films took $49.4m at the local box office in 2017. Screen Australia uses a stretch target of 4.5% box office share across a three-year rolling average, with 2017's result of 4.4% coming in just below that figure.
--
2017 was a great year for Australian film and Lion in particular deserved not only its critical success, but its commercial success, which was derived from a well-planned, global strategy, noted Graeme Mason, CEO of Screen Australia.
However, the decade-long trend of indie films being squeezed into smaller releases continues, resulting in these films earning less at the box office. In 2007, blockbusters took around 23% of the Australian box office, but ten years later they took over 50%.
That trend is even more apparent when you look at films playing on less than 200 screens, which in 2007 were jostling for a 33% share of the box office, but in 2017 they didn't even reach 14%. And it's not just Aussie films, but indie films from all countries that are feeling the pressure. For example, looking at the non-Australian Best Picture Oscar nominees in the period, you had Manchester by the Sea do $3.1m in Australia, Fences did $1.2m and the category winner Moonlight on $2.5m. All critically acclaimed, remarkable films doing significantly less box office than they would have a decade ago.
These are the new rules in which we must compete, so at Screen Australia we're not only looking for exceptional Australian stories, but stories with a considered path to audience at the cinema, and then beyond the cinema.
TELEVISION In terms of television, the combined 28-day consolidated 2017 TV ratings for metropolitan and regional areas reported by OzTAM and RegionalTAM confirm The Doctor Blake Mysteries telemovie Family Portrait (ABC) was the top rating Australian drama, closely followed by the Hoges: The Paul Hogan Story telemovie (Seven).
Notably Australian film on television remains popular, with The Dressmaker attracting 1.2 million viewers for its free to air debut.
Ratings: 2017 Top Ten Australian Dramas Title Network Ave. audience
(metro regional)
1 Doctor Blake Telemovie: Family Portrait ABC 1,600,000
2 Hoges: The Paul Hogan Story Seven 1,550,000
3 True Story with Hamish & Andy Nine 1,500,000
4 Doctor Blake Mysteries series 5 ABC 1,450,000
5 Utopia series 3 ABC 1,407,000
6 Doctor Doctor series 2 Nine 1,300,000
7 Home and Away Seven 1,230,000*
8 Blue Murder: Killer Cop Seven 1,210,000
9 House of Bond Nine 1,128,000
10 House Husbands series 5 Nine 1,127,000
Note: Full source notes at end of release. *28 day figures for episodes screening in Dec are not yet available so subject to change.
Screen Australia funded or has funded previous seasons of seven of the top ten Australian TV dramas.
It's encouraging to see Australian TV drama productions being so well received by local audiences, said Graeme Mason. We're also noting changes in the way people are consuming Australian stories. For instance the ABC's strategy of making the critically acclaimed series Seven Types of Ambiguity available to binge-view on the day of broadcast was rewarded, with over 100,000 views of each episode on iview.
TV documentary had a strong year with two Screen Australia-funded titles exceeding one million viewers. Special mention must go to War on Waste, which created a national discussion on the environmental impact of rubbish, and quite literally saw people ditching disposable coffee cups and major businesses phasing out plastic bags, said Graeme Mason.
Ratings: Top 5 Screen Australia-Funded Documentaries Due to complexities in the definition of documentary, only Screen Australia titles are reported here.
Title Network Ave. audience
(metro regional)
War On Waste (eps 1-4) ABC 1,275,000
David Stratton s Stories of Australian Cinema ABC 1,010,000
Stop Laughing...This Is Serious series 2 ABC 904,000
Ice Wars ABC 739,000
Making Muriel ABC 665,000
Note: Full source notes at end of release. War On Waste episode four was a follow-up to
Asia, Australia & Oceanic Stories
10/05/2024
SBS announces Voyager lead singer Danny Estrin as Australia's spokesperson f...
09/05/2024
Join Costa Georgiadis, Melissa Leong & Samuel Johnson For New Ground-breaking Se...
09/05/2024
Alone Australia audience continues to grow
9 May, 2024
Media releases
The program continues to deliver for SBS with significant uplifts in digital BVOD vie...
08/05/2024
The results are in from Malm Arena as Semi Final 1 participants move through to...
08/05/2024
Powerful NITV documentary Kindred to premiere during Reconciliation Week
Media releases
A journey of family, friendship and home *Watch the trailer here*
...
08/05/2024
08 05 2024 - Media release Olivia Colman and John Lithgow Star in Sophie Hyde's New Project JIMPA
Olivia Colman and John Lithgow in JIMPA. Photo credit: M...
07/05/2024
NITV appoints Michael Rennie as Presenter and Senior Producer for NITV News
Media releases
NITV has announced the appointment of Michael Rennie as Presenter...
06/05/2024
Get Ready to join Dan Hong as he hits the streets in his ultimate culinary journ...
02/05/2024
Gear up for the 2024 Cycling Grand Tours on Australia's Home of Cycling, SBS
Media releases
All of the rivalry begins with the Giro d'Italia this we...
02/05/2024
New SBS documentary dives into one of Australia's greatest underdog stories ...
02/05/2024
Alone Australia cements its place as one of Australia's biggest hits of 2024
2 May, 2024
Media releases
Alone Australia has cemented its place as one o...
30/04/2024
Launch of SBS South Asian channel and SBS Spice, a new English language offering...
29/04/2024
29 04 2024 - Media release Screen Australia announces James J. Robinson's debut feature First Light
First Light
Principal Photography is underway on Firs...
24/04/2024
SBS marks Earth Day as The Cook Up with Adam Liaw becomes first Australian show ...
24/04/2024
Save money every day with SBS's Ricardo Gon alves and Peggy Giakoumelos on n...
24/04/2024
24 04 2024 - Media release Screen Australia celebrates Australian projects bound...
23/04/2024
Social entrepreneur Hedayat Osyan wins Les Murray Award for Refugee Recognition
23 April, 2024
Media releases
The prestigious award is now in its third yea...
22/04/2024
SBS marks Earth Day with Australian TV milestone as The Cook Up with Adam Liaw b...
18/04/2024
Alone Australia goes from strength to strength
18 April, 2024
Media releases
The program again delivers for SBS with significant uplifts in digital BVOD vi...
18/04/2024
18 04 2024 - Media release Screen Australia and Dynamic Television announce new Scripted Initiative
Savage River
Screen Australia and Los Angeles-based telev...
16/04/2024
ABS Agility Beyond Space announces Appointment of Mark Rigolle as its Chief Ex...
11/04/2024
Alone Australia Ep 2 reaches over 1m Australians
11 April, 2024
Media releases
The program continues to consistently grow week-on-week in linear audience w...
11/04/2024
11 04 2024 - Media release Screen Australia and Meta launch fourth year of First...
10/04/2024
10 04 2024 - Media release Screen Australia announces over $2.3 million for nine documentaries
Guardians of the River
Screen Australia has announced nine doc...
09/04/2024
Groundbreaking NITV documentary series Our Law expands across Australia from Thu...
09/04/2024
Techtel, the creators of inflo, today announced that a new speech to text transcription engine from openai called Whisper, is available to inflo customers who a...
04/04/2024
Manu Feildel, Miranda Otto and Pat Rafter join life-changing new season of Who D...
04/04/2024
Alone Australia season 2 continues to redefine Australian TV viewing through on-...
27/03/2024
Living Black, the longest-running Indigenous current affairs television program ...
26/03/2024
Crime is relative in SBS's new Canneseries nominated crime-family drama with...
25/03/2024
SBS gears up for Season 2 of Alone Australia with the creation of Alone Cologne...
22/03/2024
SBS Learn partners with the Islamic Museum of Australia to support classrooms in...
21/03/2024
21 03 2024 - Media release Screen Australia announces over $1.6 million in support of the games industry
Which Way Up: Galaxy Games
Screen Australia has anno...
18/03/2024
18 03 2024 - Media release Screen Australia and VicScreen launch new Screen Careers initiative
LTR Denise Eriksen, Esther Coleman Hawkins, Caroline Pitcher, K...
15/03/2024
15 03 2024 - Media release The Creators 2024 Participants Announced
The Creators program recipients. L-R Thomas Duncan-Watt, Vanessa Gazy, Sarah Lambert, Lea...
14/03/2024
SBS to mark Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr with all Australians
14 March, 2024
Media releases
Content in 22 languages*, a collection of movies to stream free on d...
14/03/2024
March 14,2024
-- KDDI Corporation
KDDI Corporation resolved at a meeting of the Board of Directors held today to change (newly appointed, retire) a director ...
13/03/2024
13 03 2024 - Media release Screen Australia announces dramas Critical Incident and Sunny Nights for Stan
Critical Incident: Akshay Khanna and Zoe Boe. Photo c...
07/03/2024
Explore the afterlife with SBS podcast Grave Matters'
6 March, 2024
Media releases
Most of us are woefully unprepared for one of life's few certai...
06/03/2024
Multi-award winning electronic music duo to represent Australia at this year'...
06/03/2024
Developing Lunar 3GPP Mobile Network Technologies for Moon Exploration
GITA...
04/03/2024
SBS announces new development fund to discover Australia's biggest and riski...
28/02/2024
Yumi Stynes returns for season two of SBS podcast SEEN'
26 February, 2024
Media releases
Eight new trailblazers join feminist Australian icon Yumi Sty...
28/02/2024
28 02 2024 - Media release Screen Australia announces over $810,000 in development funding for 29 projects
Willy
Screen Australia has announced 23 feature fi...
27/02/2024
27 02 2024 - Media release Michael Ebeid AM appointed as new Screen Australia Chair
Michael Ebeid AM and Megan Brownlow
The Hon. Minister for the Arts, Tony...
26/02/2024
Supporting AFEELAs entertainment experience and global launch with a communicati...
21/02/2024
21 02 2024 - Media release Screen Australia and Australians in Film Announce App...
21/02/2024
Aiming to deliver new video-related solutions utilizing 5G SA this year
Son...
22 01 2018 - Media release 2017 year in review and 2018 preview 
