Propelled by Oddball and Blinky Bill: The Movie, next week Australian films are set to smash the record for the biggest B.O. total in a single year.
The feature films and docs released in 2015 plus holdovers have amassed an estimated $61.8 million.
Produced by Steve Kearney and Richard Keddie and directed by Stuart McDonald, Oddball raked in $3.55 million in its second week, lifting its earnings to $6.3 million. Deane Taylor’s Blinky Bill climbed to $1.9 million after pocketing a tad over $1 million in its sophomore session.
So by the end of next week the 2015 total will surpass the current record of $63.4 million set in 2001, the year of Moulin Rouge!, Lantana, The Man Who Sued God and Crocodile Dundee in LA.
In that year the Australian films’ market share was 7.8 per cent. If the 2001 total was adjusted for inflation then 2015 would not be a record in real terms but the market share is a consistent barometer.
The all-time highest share, according to Screen Australia’s stats, is 23.5 per cent in 1986, thanks primarily to Crocodile Dundee and Malcolm.
Among the other films still in release, Jeremy Sims’ Last Cab to Darwin has collected $7.1 million and Neil Armfield’s Holding the Man reached $1.1 million.
After a strong start to the year from Mad Max: Fury Road, The Water Diviner, Paper Planes and That Sugar Film, Aussie films eclipsed 2014’s lowly $26.1 million (a market share of 2.4 per cent) and 2013's $38.5 million (3.5 per cent).
With Joceyln Moorhouse’s The Dressmaker, Anupam Sharma's UnINDIAN and Peter Andrikidis' Alex & Eve opening this month and Wayne Hope’s Now Add Honey launching in November, the 2015 total could well surpass $70 million.