The theatrical success of Barbie, The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Oppenheimer helped propel the Australian box office to its best year since the pandemic in 2023, though it still trailed pre-2019 levels.
The local box office exceeded an estimated $985 million, 4.6 per cent ahead of 2022’s $941 million, as reported by Numero. In 2021, figures tallied $605 million and in 2020, amid the height of the pandemic, a mere $401 million.
In 2019, the box office ended at $1.228 billion, a figure it had hovered around in the five years prior. The industry’s best year on record was 2016, when it reached $1.259 billion. The biggest challenge faced by the market in 2023 were release delays due to the US writers’ and actors’ strikes, in addition to the cost of living, and continued COVID recovery.
Barbie was 2023’s biggest film, grossing $86.1 million, also marking the biggest release ever for Warner Bros in this market. It is also the fifth highest grossing film of all time in Australia after Avatar, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Avatar: The Way of Water and Top Gun: Maverick.
Landing in the number two spot was The Super Mario Bros. Movie, earning $51.8 million, which was the second highest grossing film of all time for Universal in Australia after after Jurassic World, and the second highest grossing animation of all time after 2019’s The Lion King.
Disney’s Avatar: The Way of Water, released in late 2022, earned $44.8 million of its $93.7 million gross in 2023, followed by Uni’s Oppenheimer, which earned $41.8 million, making it the second highest grossing MA-rated film of all time after Deadpool. Rounding out the top five was Sony’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which drew $33.4 million.
In a statement, Cameron Mitchell, executive director of the Cinema Association Australasia (the new name for the National Association of Cinema Operators, or NACO), said the overall 2023 results reinforce the appeal of cinema in Australia. Despite a reduction in wide releases in 2023, which Mitchell attributes to the US strikes, the organisation estimates 60 million tickets were sold for more than 300 films released.
” An estimated 12 million Australians watched live AFL and NRL in 2023, so live cinema attendance was five times as popular as live attendance at these sporting codes,” he said.
“Average Australian ticket prices are one of the lowest globally when benchmarked against the minimum wage, representing less than 80 per cent of the minimum hourly wage compared to the US (~1.1x the minimum hourly wage) and China (~3.5x), making cinema one of the most affordable out-of-home entertainment options, even more apparent when comparisons are made to concerts and sporting events”.
Cinema Nova CEO Kristian Connelly told IF audiences made it clear in 2023 that they were keen to go to the movies, but they often didn’t have enough attractive options.
“The market was clearly impacted by multiple releases moving into very late 2023 or 2024 due to the actors strikes, as well as growing audience indifference to superheroes and long-in-the-tooth franchises. There was also sizable troughs between the peaks of 2023, with Q2 falling short after a strong start to the year, and a soft late Q3/early Q4 failing to leverage off the back of the enthusiasm shown Barbenheimer.“
Now the SAG-AFTRA strike is over, Village Entertainment chief commercial offer believes the future looks bright, noting the current appetite for cinemagoing in Australia has been met by significant investments in experiences like Gold Class, Vmax and Vjunior
“Exhibitors globally await the Hollywood product pipeline to return to pre-covid levels. In the short term, in 2024 audiences will enjoy a diverse slate with titles to please every demographic including but not limited to; Force of Nature: The Dry 2, Dune: Part Two, King Fu Panda 4, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, The Fall Guy, IF, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Bad Boys Sequel, Inside Out 2, Despicable Me 4, A Quiet Place: Day One, Twisters, Deadpool 3, Beetlejuice 2, Joker Folie a Deux, Wicked Part I, Gladiator 2, Sonic 3 and Mufasa: The Lion King.“
Majestic Cinemas CEO Kieren Dell told IF there had been genuine hopes the 2023 tally would have gotten closer to pre-pandemic levels, so feels the result of $985 million is disappointing. He chalks this up predominantly to the US strikes, expecting resulting production delays to have a similar dampening effect on the next 6-12 months.
“We would have hoped to be within striking distance of pre-COVID box office, even with the slow start of the year, and [were] encouraged by the April to July period with Mario Bros and Barbenheimer, despite some lacklustre results from the likes of Elemental (albeit it carved out a result), Indiana Jones and Mission Impossible. But the strikes put paid to that, with the loss of key titles in the second half like Dune: Part Two, Ghostbusters, Kraven the Hunter and Force of Nature making the second half a struggle and keeping that number well shy of pre-Covid box office levels,” he says.
Dell also notes the focus on cost of living has been particularly difficult, particularly for low income regional areas.
“While cinema is a cost-effective outing and often does well in recessionary times, it can struggle in these early parts of the cycle as discretionary spending is reviewed and cutback, and this crisis has affected families and young people disproportionally who are a key cinema audience.”
The year was a strong one for cinema from India: Animal proved the highest grossing Indian film of all time, grossing $5 million, Pathaan the second highest grossing at $4.73 and Jawan the third at $4.68 million.
Other record breakers included John Farnham: Finding the Voice, which at $4.5 million became the highest grossing Australian feature documentary of all time and the year’s biggest Australian title, and Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, which at $9.1m is the highest grossing special event film of all time and the highest grossing concert film of all time.
For Australian film overall it was a difficult year, with Finding the Voice one of just three titles that crossed $1 million mark, with others include Talk to Me ($4.3 million) and Blueback ($2.2 million).
Looking ahead, Connelly tells IF “the name of the game” for the broader industry is about building repeat business, and luring audiences back via dynamic marketing.
“As digital marketing continues to dominate and cinemas are restricted to only those assets made available to promote upcoming studio films (either due to resources or promotional materials), messaging to audiences becomes repetitive and is easily ignored. Exhibitors and distributors need to work together to get the message out about films in a variety of ways rather than all of them simply copy-pasting trailer cut downs into a social media platforms ‘stories’ channel,” he says.
“Theatrical releases are also not reaching their full potential due to fast-burns caused by too-wide release strategies (thereby causing new, more niche titles to open lower in the ranking and exiting schedules prematurely) and the rush to streaming. Apple understands this, as witnessed on their Flower Moon and Napoleon release strategies, but others less-so. While exhibition is likely to contract in face of production slow-downs caused by the strikes, streamers seem likely to face a retention battle as available content is throttled for an audience raised to expect a plethora of new English language content every single week.”
| Rank | Title | Distributor | Jan 1 to Dec 31 (AUD $M est) |
| 1 | Barbie | Warner Bros. | $86.1 |
| 2 | The Super Mario Bros. Movie | Universal | $51.8 |
| 3 | Avatar: The Way of Water | Walt Disney | $44.8 |
| 4 | Oppenheimer | Universal | $41.8 |
| 5 | Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse | Sony | $33.4 |
| 6 | Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 | Walt Disney | $33.2 |
| 7 | John Wick: Chapter 4 | Studiocanal | $24.8 |
| 8 | The Little Mermaid | Walt Disney | $23.4 |
| 9 | Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1 | Paramount | $21.4 |
| 10 | Wonka* | Warner Bros. | $20.9 |
| 11 | The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes* | Roadshow | $20.9 |
| 12 | Puss in Boots: The Last Wish | Universal | $17.3 |
| 13 | Elemental | Walt Disney | $17.2 |
| 14 | Fast X | Universal | $16.9 |
| 15 | Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny | Walt Disney | $16.3 |
| 16 | Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania | Walt Disney | $15.6 |
| 17 | Five Nights at Freddy’s* | Universal | $14.4 |
| 18 | Transformers: Rise of the Beasts | Paramount | $12.5 |
| 19 | Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves | Paramount | $11.5 |
| 20 | Napoleon* | Sony | $11.4 |
| 21 | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem | Paramount | $10.5 |
| 22 | The Equalizer 3 | Sony | $10.3 |
| 23 | Trolls Band Together* | Universal | $9.4 |
| 24 | Creed III | Warner Bros. | $9.3 |
| 25 | Meg 2: The Trench | Warner Bros. | $9.2 |
| 26 | Air | Warner Bros. | $9.1 |
| 27 | Taylor Swift: The ERAS Tour | Traflagar Releasing | $9.1 |
| 28 | Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile | Sony | $9.1 |
| 29 | The Flash | Warner Bros. | $9.0 |
| 30 | Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie | Paramount | $8.6 |
Australian box office data is via Numero.