Total screen drama production in Australia has increased a healthy 11 per cent from last year, raising the total spend to $837 million - the highest on record.
The amount spent on scripted content in Australia in the last financial year - $2.34 billion across 213 titles - is only a smidgen down on the prior year's record high of $2.43 billion. Yet whereas 2021/22's result was driven by unseen levels of expenditure on local drama, 2022/23 was fuelled by an all-time high in foreign spend.
It's no secret that Australia experienced a significant production boom during the 2020-21 financial year, but Screen Australia has finally crunched the numbers to reveal a record $1.9 billion was spent on drama production across the period.
The production boom shows no sign of slowing down: More money is being spent on drama in Australia than ever before, and significantly, the majority of spend is occurring on local projects.
The last financial year saw the amount spent on drama production in Australia crack $1 billion for the first time, thanks in part to record levels of foreign project spend and bolstered local feature film production.
A record $718 million was spent on Australian feature films, TV dramas and online programs in 2017-18, up 7 per cent on the prior year, mostly due to a boom in co-productions.
Australian TV drama expenditure has reached a record high of $376 million.
The annual drama report, encompassing film and TV, has been released by the government agency