23 01 2017 - Media release 2016 Year in Review and 2017 Preview
FEATURE FILM
Today the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia (MPDAA) released the finalised 2016 box offices figures, confirming Hacksaw Ridge was the highest earning Australian film, taking $8.2m in the calendar year. As of 23 January 2017, Rentrak reports the film has taken $205m globally, including an incredible $77m in China alone. Australian films took $24m at the local box office in 2016, equating to a 3.8% three-year rolling average share, below Screen Australia's stretch target of 4.5% - a result which was expected in a year that included international juggernauts like Finding Dory and Star Wars.
Along with Hacksaw Ridge, summer has proved a busy time for Australian film, with RED DOG: True Blue bringing in $6.9m locally as of 23 January 2017. Lion, which has already made $28m overseas since premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival, earned $748,805 on its opening day alone (19 January 2017) in Australia and has become the fifth highest earning opening weekend Australian film at the local box office, taking more than $5m.
The popularity and critical success of Australian screen content both locally and overseas is a tribute to the exceptional talent of our local industry which we now know is worth $3 billion a year, said Graeme Mason, CEO of Screen Australia.
The mix of stories told demonstrates how globally-facing our industry has become, with Australians just as capable of telling a blockbuster war drama like Hacksaw Ridge as an offbeat comedy like Girl Asleep. It's also becoming common that even our smaller films will reach an overseas audience, such as The Daughter which played at an outstanding five international festivals, including Venice and Toronto, came in third at the local box office (despite opening on just 52 screens), and ended up taking 29% of its 2016 box office overseas.
Undoubtedly timing played a big part in 2016's box office result, with Lion being released overseas before it was released in Australia and RED DOG: True Blue only in cinemas for six days in 2016. The fact Lion went to number one on its first day in Australian cinemas is a fantastic result, kicking off a year that includes hotly anticipated titles like Jasper Jones and Simon Baker's directorial debut in Breath.
Also noteworthy is that of the 12 documentaries released in 2016, three now rank in the top 10 grossing Australian documentaries (excluding IMAX) of all time - Sherpa, Embrace and Chasing Asylum, all directed by women.
2017 is on track to be a busy year for Australian film with titles including Jasper Jones, Breath, Sweet Country, Three Summers, Cargo, Flammable Children, The Nightingale, Hotel Mumbai and Jennifer Peedom's (Sherpa) new documentary Mountain all expected to hit cinemas. Also due for release is documentary Casting JonBenet and feature film Berlin Syndrome, which have both recently been acquired by Netflix, and are among the Australian selections for the prestigious Sundance Film Festival this month, with Casting JonBenet also screening at Berlin International Film Festival in February.
TELEVISION
Combined 28-day consolidated TV ratings figures for metropolitan and regional areas reported by OzTAM and RegionalTAM show the five highest rating Australian dramas on free-to-air television for 2016 each attracted an average of 1.5 million viewers or more across the entire series. These included target="_blank"Molly (Seven) with an audience of almost 3 million (metro, 2 million), followed by Wanted (Seven) at 1.9m (metro, 1.2m), The Doctor Blake Mysteries series 4 (ABC) at 1.7m (metro, 1.1m), The Secret Daughter (Seven) at 1.6m (metro, 1m) and Doctor Doctor (Nine) attracting 1.5 million viewers (metro,965,000).
At a time when there has never been more choice available across free-to-air, catch-up platforms, subscription television and streaming services, the fact that each of the top five Australian television dramas were watched by at least 1.5 million people is an exceptional result, said Graeme Mason. Despite exponential growth in the volume and availability of overseas content, the appetite for home-grown stories is only increasing.
Following a record year for Australian television drama in 2015-16, which saw 58 titles in production, audiences can look forward to an abundance of Australian shows in 2017. In this year's crop there will be a host of biopics including Hoges: The Paul Hogan Story (Seven), Blue Murder: Killer Cop (Seven), House of Bond (Nine) and as yet untitled works on Olivia Newton John (Seven) and Shane Warne (Seven). The Wrong Girl (Ten), The Secret Daughter (Seven), Cleverman (ABC), The Family Law (SBS) and Top of the Lake (Foxtel) will all make welcome returns with second seasons, and the iconic Wake in Fright (Ten) and Picnic at Hanging Rock (Foxtel) will be reimagined for television. Hotly anticipated documentaries including Ice Wars (ABC), Filthy Rich and Homeless (SBS) and My Year 12 Life (ABC) will also hit screens.
DIGITAL ORIGINALS
Digital originals continue to be core to Screen Australia's business with the likes of Aunty Donna's 1999 becoming Skip Ahead's most-viewed project ever with almost 2.4 million views. Several digital brands saw their work transferred to television in 2016, including The Katering Show season 2 (the most watched ABC iview original ever), Starting From Now and Wizards of Aus.
Production values also continue to increase, with comedies like Little Acorns, Bruce, Fancy Boy and Wham Bam Thank You Ma'am being stand-outs in 2016, while Australian online talent including The Racka Racka (3.5 million subscribers) and SketchShe (850,000 subscribers) forge global careers.
Although the four-year Multiplatform Fund that has fuelled our digital content to date ends in June 2017, we are
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
16/10/2025
The XR Sports Alliance (XRSA) has announced the third cohort of members. The new members include MLSE, Vegas Golden Knights, Pro Climbing League, FansXR, Focal ...
16/10/2025
NEW YORK The Broadcasters Foundation of America has launched its 2025 Year-End Giving Campaign which seeks to raise donations from tax-deductible personal and c...
16/10/2025
NEW YORK Australias Nine Network and the National Hockey League (NHL) today announced a media partnership that will bring the worlds premier professional ice ho...
16/10/2025
Parks Associates has released new data showing that nearly half (45%) of U.S. internet homes watch free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) services and 89% of U.S...
16/10/2025
TROY, Mich. -New data from J.D. Power's 2025 U.S. Residential Internet Service Provider Study shows that residential wireless internet providers are growing...
16/10/2025
This Saturday October 18 Katja Mia will burst onto the radio airwaves for the first time as she joins 2FM. Katja will be standing in for Bl thnaid Treacy on Sat...
16/10/2025
This October, RT is delighted to support Wexford Festival Opera, Babor International Arts Festival for Children, Open House Dublin and 36 other arts and cultu...
16/10/2025
GeForce NOW is more than just a platform to stream fresh games every week - it offers celebrations for the gamers who make it epic, with member rewards to sweet...
15/10/2025
Across the world, early-career reporters are interrogating systems that shape daily life, from mortuaries and classrooms to the corridors of legal education and...
15/10/2025
St. Louis Blues Pay Tribute to Ozzy Osbourne in New Pregame Open VideoThe NHL franchise worked with production firms 2WEI and 4th Floor CreativeBy Mark J Burns,...
15/10/2025
Cobalt Digital, G3DVu, Proxima Vision, and Telos Alliance Renew Premier Sponsors...
15/10/2025
By Paige Bethmann
Before my grandmother passed away in 2019, I went to visit her in the hospital where she'd been for a few weeks. When I arrived, the nurs...
15/10/2025
Two years ago, Spotify set out to grow the entire publishing industry by making ...
15/10/2025
People turn to DJ for a listening experience that feels personal, dynamic, and j...
15/10/2025
Las personas recurren a DJ para vivir una experiencia de escucha personal, din m...
15/10/2025
Rock legend Bruce Springsteen and luminary actor Jeremy Allen White came togethe...
15/10/2025
At Spotify, we're all about supporting rising talent and helping them connec...
15/10/2025
New SBS Documentary Series THE CANCER KILLERS Premieres 4 November on SBS & SBS ...
15/10/2025
SBS celebrates the Festivals of Lights with bold, illuminating stories across th...
15/10/2025
One of humanity's most profound questions continues: Is there any place in our galaxy suitable for life beyond Earth? NASA intends to find out, with the hel...
15/10/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
15/10/2025
Scality, a global leader in cyber-resilient storage software for the AI era, today announced the advancement of its comprehensive AI ecosystem certification pro...
15/10/2025
The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) today unveiled key highlights of the 2026 HPA Tech Retreat, scheduled for Feb. 15 19 at the Westin Rancho Mirage Go...
15/10/2025
At NAB Show New York 2025 (Stand 244), Interra Systems will showcase the future of media QC, monitoring, and captioning, highlighting its award-winning, AI- and...
15/10/2025
Grass Valley today announced that RMC BFM, part of the CMA-CGM Group and France's third-largest private media group, has chosen Grass Valley's productio...
15/10/2025
Appear, the global leader in live production technology, will demonstrate how its powerful hardware and software innovations are shaping the future of hybrid, s...
15/10/2025
Rakim to Join Berklee's Hip-Hop Hall of Fame at Signature Series Concert The rap icon becomes the latest inductee, following luminaries such as Roxanne Sh...
15/10/2025
Berklee Brings Live Music to the Head of the Charles Student artists will perform on multiple riverfront stages during the 60th anniversary of the world's...
15/10/2025
CobbTV, the government access television channel for Cobb County, Ga. recently acquired an automated playout system from Pebble, a global provider of automation...
15/10/2025
OSLO, Norway Appear, the global leader in live production technology, will demonstrate how its powerful hardware and software innovations are shaping the future...
15/10/2025
NEW YORK The NBA is making major changes to the NBA App and NBA TV as it takes control of them from TNT Sports, which has long managed the league's digital ...
15/10/2025
SAN MATEO, Calif. In what promises to be a major expansion of interactive features and personalized content on the DirecTV platform, the operator and Glance hav...
15/10/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Roku has launched changes to its user interface (UI) that the streaming platform says will better showcase original programming on the platform...
15/10/2025
LOS ANGELES Software-defined data storage and data services provider OpenDrives has elevated Alex Dunfey to chief technology officer, responsible for driving th...
15/10/2025
Abu Dhabi, UAE October 15, 2025: Space42 (ADX: SPACE42), the UAE-based AI-powe...
15/10/2025
Sheldon Nichols and Will Trickett to find and prepare more classic cars for budget conscious would-be owners from Wiser Films
UKTV have recommissioned the clas...
15/10/2025
Wednesday 15 October 2025
Nick Cave
JPEG (275 KB)
Explore the creative univer...
15/10/2025
Wednesday 15 October 2025
From breaking up with your partner to quitting your job - new polling shows some messages are just too scary to send
Over a fifth (...
15/10/2025
Rohde & Schwarz unveils compact MXO 3 oscilloscopes with 4 and 8 channels: Advan...
15/10/2025
Back to All News
Revenge Series The Resurrected' Captivates Audiences Across Asia
Entertainment
15 October 2025
GlobalTaiwan
Link copied to clipboard
...
15/10/2025
Back to All News
Bringing the Best in VFX and Virtual Production Together as Eyeline
Jeffrey Shapiro
CEO, Eyeline
Business
15 October 2025
GlobalCanadaInd...
15/10/2025
Deployed by Astound Business Solutions, Harmonic's Primary Distribution Solution Ensures Outstanding Video Quality and Seamless Ad Insertion at the Edge
SA...
15/10/2025
Collaboration extends a trusted relationship as RMC BFM invests in scalable, fut...
15/10/2025
Series coming in 2026 stars Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Justine Mitchell and Jason O'Mara released today
RT today released first look images of new comedy-drama ...
14/10/2025
SVG Europe Summit 2025: All Sessions Now Available to Watch on SVG PLAYNetworking event that preceded IBC2025 shone a light on elite live sports innovation acro...
14/10/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Author Rich Podolsky on Writing Madden & Summerall: How They Revo...
14/10/2025
SVG All-Stars: Michael Reiners, Coordinating Producer, FloRacingThe Illinois State grad steers a vast schedule of motorsports events at tracks across the countr...
14/10/2025
Content protection: Getting the right management for your DRM By Neal Romanek
Friday, October 10, 2025 - 10:11
Print This Story
Eluvio power the EPCR'...
23 01 2017 - Media release 2016 Year in Review and 2017 Preview 
