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
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
22 01 2018 - Media release 2017 year in review and 2018 preview 
