The Australian International Movie Convention (AIMC) is set to return its pre-pandemic home at The Star, Gold Coast in October, and this year aims to put a spotlight on the talent of the local industry.
After not going ahead in 2020 and 2021, AIMC returned last year in Sydney mid-year, albeit at a smaller scale designed to acknowledge the difficulties faced by many exhibitors and distributors through the pandemic.
This year, however, will be a return to the AIMC of old. Or as the recently-appointed National Association of Cinema Operators (NACO) chairman Cameron Mitchell puts it to IF: “better than”.
All five major theatrical studios – Warner Bros, Disney, Sony, Paramount and Universal – have confirmed to showcase their slates at the event, which will also celebrate WB and Disney’s centarenaries.
Alongside will be Roadshow Films and the members of Australian Independent Distributors Association (AIDA).
Mitchell is optimistic about the current theatrical landscape, noting that the consolidated Australian and New Zealand box office for 2022 ended up 55 per cent higher than 2021, at an estimated $1.08 billion.
Off the back of the success of Top Gun: Maverick and current release Avatar: The Way of Water – the third and six highest grossing films ever released in Australia – he’s even more bullish about 2023.
He is encouraged by the buzz around new release M3GAN, as well as the diversity of titles in the market with the Academy Awards coming up. Later in the year, he’s enthused by Oppenheimer and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
In 2019, the box office ended at $1.23 billion; a figure it had hovered around annually for five years. Given the high quality of the cinema experience in Australia and the strength of the titles due to enter the market soon, Mitchell is confident the industry can do more than just return to those levels.
“Everyone is saying, when will we get back to 2019? I’m more focused on eclipsing those 2019 numbers,” he says.
“What we’re seeing now is once the movies are coming back, people are running back as well. It’s that shared social experience of cinema. So we’re really optimistic for this year.”
One segment of the box office Mitchell doesn’t believe is where it deserves to be is the market share of Australian cinema; he would like to see at around 10 per cent annually.
In 2021, with an absence of US product in the market, Australian films and co-productions garnered 11.8 per cent market share, the biggest for 35 years – in 2019, it was 3.3 per cent.
2021 was also the second highest year for Australian film on record, at $71.5 million. Our best year at the box office was 2015, when ticket sales tallied $88 million, spurred on Mad Max: Fury Road, The Dressmaker, Oddball, The Water Diviner, Paper Planes and Last Cab To Darwin.
However, while Elvis was a hit in 2022, grossing $33.5 million to become the fourth highest grossing Australian film in history, only a handful of other local films crossed the $1 million mark: Wog Boys Forever, How to Please a Woman, The Drover’s Wife the Legend of Molly Johnson, Three Thousand Years of Longing and UK co-production Falling for Figaro.
“We should consistently have over $100 million of Australian box office annually,” Mitchell says.
“We have such amazing talent in Australia that we’re recognised for globally. Yet for whatever reason we haven’t quite consistently met that potential. If we’re going to annualise above $1 billion of box office, which we’re very confident we will, getting to 10% of our box office being Australian content seems to be a minimum.”
Last year the Australian Feature Film Summit was held alongside AIMC, with aims of bringing producers, distributors and exhibitors together. This year, following conversations with Screen Australia, Cameron is keen to continue this idea, encouraging creatives, cast and crew to attend the convention. There are plans to spotlight the contribution of Australian talent to the global industry.
“I want to ensure that the Australian International Movie Convention is a chance for the whole industry to come together,” Mitchell says.
“The government’s committed to funding and supporting Australian productions. We’ve got exhibitors who are desperate for amazing content. We’ve audience here that loves Australian films. The more things that we can do to bring parties together and talk about what is and isn’t working, and where opportunities lie, I think incrementally we will get smarter and better at optimising that content every year.”
AIMC runs October 31-November 2. Registration will open in the coming months.