The King’s Speech has recouped all of the £1 million production investment made by the now-defunct UK Film Council, according to new data released by the government.
The film, made with a reported production budget of just £8 million, is expected to generate a substantial profit after grossing an incredible $US414.2 million worldwide.
It is just the second film backed by the UKFC to recoup all of its funding (alongside St Trinian’s) since 2006, according to The Guardian (although the UKFC agreed to return 5 per cent of its £1 million investment in The King's Speech to the producers).
The British film, about King George VI's attempt to overcome his stutter, won four Oscars last year including for Australian producer Emile Sherman. It stars Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Guy Pearce.
Earlier this year, Sherman encouraged the Australian government to fund the Screen Producers Association of Australia’s proposed Producer-Distributor Film Fund (PDFF).
“The King’s Speech, despite having an Australian producer, an Australian executive producer and an Australian star in Geoffrey Rush, is a British film," Sherman said at the time.
"Put simply, if the PDFF had been in place when I was financing The King’s Speech, then I would have been accepting the Oscar for Best Picture for a film that was officially Australian as well as British."