Canberra, we have a problem. Australians are not watching homegrown movies. They are not watching them in droves. Since 1977, there have only been six recorded years where Australian films have passed a 10 percent share of domestic box office takings.
Last year, that slumped to a depressing 2.43 percent, down from 3.51 percent in 2013, despite notable exceptions like Kiwi import Russell Crowe’s directorial debut The Water Diviner, which led the charge to the top of the domestic pile for 2014 within a week of its Boxing Day release, and the critically mauled but popcorn-conquering slasher sequel Wolf Creek 2.
We've all seen the statistics; we've all read the think pieces about 'what's wrong with Australian film'. There's more to the story, though, as sometimes movies that are deemed 'bombs' go on to find receptive audiences overseas. Here are five recent examples of local movies that did better business in the much larger US or UK markets and increasingly at the rapidly expanding Chinese box office.
As has been well-documented, genre movies tend to struggle at the Australian box office, particularly in the ‘difficult’ horror genre, which many industry figures concede is a hard sell when trying to secure local screens. The working assumption is that Australian audiences just will not show up for scary movies.
In an increasing trend of testing the waters on the overseas film festival circuit, The Babadook debuted to rapturous critical applause at Sundance. Writer/director Jennifer Kent’s mental health parable sees Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries star Essie Davis as a single mum struggling to raise her troubled son while plagued by a menacing book-borne monster.
William Friedkin, the great director behind the seminal genre classic The Exorcist, tweeted his praise for Kent’s directorial debut:
Stephen King was also a vocal fan, branding it, “deeply disturbing and highly recommended,” while the New York Film Critics Circle crowned it with Best First Film award.
So far, so good, with the strong word of mouth stateside seeing The Babadook fare well in its initial Video On Demand (VOD) release, before going on to accrue around US$950,800 (AUS$1.2 million) in limited cinematic release.
But The Babadook didn’t fare so well at home. With an estimated production budget of around AUS$2 million, compare its stellar UK opening weekend haul of £347,500 (AUS$672,200), on the back of a big marketing push, to the paltry AUS$256,000 haul over its entire six-week run domestically. The UK gross finished up north of £1.3 million, or almost AUS$2.6 million. Kent’s arty horror also fared far better in non-English-speaking markets, including France (AUS$2.4 million).
Of course, population size plays a role here, but another key factor is that local distributor Umbrella Entertainment doesn’t have the financial muscle to blanket advertise. Domestic films often suffer from a muted marketing campaign in the lead-up to release. Compared to the juggernaut that is Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, you’d be lucky to spot a poster for the likes of The Babadook, let alone an all-important TV spot, during its Australian run.
Without a bulging advertising budget, local filmmakers are already on the back foot when it comes to grabbing our increasingly distracted attentions, particularly when you factor in considerably higher ticket prices compared to similar markets. It should also be noted that The Babadook received the ‘art house’ treatment domestically, going out on a limited 13-screen release, with multiplexes shying away, as opposed to a wider release in the UK (147 screens, including multiplex).
Horror does connect with Australian audiences now and then, of course. Case in point: Wolf Creek 2’s second outing for John Jarratt’s outback psychopath Mick Taylor ended up on around AUS$5.29 million. Ironically, it did not secure a US cinematic release, heading straight to VOD.
This kooky time-bending slice of sci-fi noir from the Brisbane-based Spierig brothers may have worked some well-worn genre tropes, but it also featured a spectacular performance from local star-on-the-rise Sarah Snook, a sort of Australian Emma Stone, who easily stole the limelight from U.S import Ethan Hawke.
Shot in Melbourne, Predestination opened the 2014 Melbourne International Film Festival after first screening at SXSW in Austin, Texas, but the hype wasn’t enough to get bums on seats here, nor was Boyhood and Before Midnight star Hawke.
Predestination ended up taking home AUS$684,600. Although it made little impact in either the UK or US, perhaps because of its darker tone and slower pace, with sci-fi goers currently more attuned to the explosive thrills and quippy hijinks of the likes of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, it faired better in the Chinese market, where it brought in over AUS$2.3 million.
Hawke previously worked with the sibling directors on Daybreakers, a vampire-themed dystopia which did much better business stateside, accruing US$30 million compared to around AUS$2.5 million (US$2 million) here. As a rough rule of thumb, 10 percent of US would be seen as a win.
Read our review of Predestination
Interview: Sarah Snook and the Spierig brothers
Feature: The Spierig Brothers' Top 5 Sci-fi Movies
Interview: Sarah Snook and the Spierig brothers
Feature: The Spierig Brothers' Top 5 Sci-fi Movies
Writer/director Stuart Beattie’s graphic novel adaptation may have been a critically and popularly panned re-imagining of Mary Shelley’s game-changing 19th century horror novel, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into a monstrous failure.
Shot in Melbourne, the CGI-indulgent fantasy starring Aaron Ekhart as the monster, Bill Nighy as an against-type villain and Miranda Otto as an angel slumped over the line domestically, with just north of AUS$400,000 (US$318,000) on 64 screens.
Despite its shambolic plot and hokey performances, Russia went nuts for it, where it accrued over US$11 million and secured 31st place in that country’s 2014 box office takings. Brazil and Mexico soared past US$5 million apiece. While the per-screen average of US$3,128 was undeniably soft stateside, it still brought in over $19 million there.
Distributor Lionsgate was nonetheless underwhelmed by the return on its US$65 million budget – before you factor in a very visible promotional campaign that wouldn’t have come cheap – so you can breathe a sigh of relief; a sequel is unlikely.
Sometimes there’s strength in numbers, as was the case with Somersault director Cate Shortland’s Lore, a co-production with both Germany and the UK. An adaptation of The Dark Room by British novelist Rachel Seiffert, Shortland co-wrote the piece with British screenwriter Robin Mukherjee.
An historical drama set in the immediate aftermath of WWII, it stars German actress Saskia Rosendahl as the eponymous Lore, the eldest of five siblings who leads them on a 900km cross-country trek after they’re abandoned by their high-ranking Nazi parents who are fleeing prosecution by the Allies for heinous crimes against the Jews.
Rosendahl took home a scoop of awards for her performance, including the AACTA for Best Young Actor and the EFP Shooting Star at the Berlin International Film Festival. Largely German-speaking, there was no obviously on-camera Australian identity to the art house production and it struggled at home in limited release, bringing in around AUS$296,700, though it fought hard with a decent $5,866 average on 11 screens for an opening weekend haul just over $64,500.
While you might expect Germany to be strongest, the picture was similar there with around AUS$280,000 over its three-week run. The Netherlands took in slightly more, while the UK box office climbed to almost $490,000. American audiences were more receptive, and the film took in US$970,300, or the equivalent of about AUS$1.2 million. Showing on 54 screens at its peak, the six-screen opening weekend pulled a decent US$5,250 average.
Kimble Rendall earned his chops as second director on a slew of action sci-fi/fantasy, including The Matrix Reloaded/Revolutions, Ghost Rider and I, Robot as well as helming his own low-budget horror flick Cut. Rendall gained notoriety with this sharksploitation tale that was way ahead of the Sharknado curve.
In some ways, it’s hard to figure out why this jubilantly trashy piece of cinema, a Singaporean co-production, didn’t work domestically. It posits a tsunami trapping a plethora of attractive youngsters, including The Twilight Saga’s Xavier Samuel and Step Up 3D’s Sharni Vinson, in a coastal town’s supermarket along with a great white shark. Drown, Drown, prices are drown... (sorry).
After entertaining audiences at the Venice Film Festival, Bait 3D sunk without a trace here, only reeling in an opening weekend haul of AUS$365,000 on a low screen average of $1,290 after going wide on 283 screens. It wound up below the all-important million dollar mark domestically.
The fim was marketed to Asian audiences in a savvy way, which included casting Singaporean actors Adrian Pang and Qi Yuwu. It went on to supertrawl an estimated AUS$30 million in China, roughly the cost of production. It opened in pole position and even outperformed Liam Neeson’s Taken 2 in a market that laps up US blockbuster fare.
Chinese distributors Yunan Film Group and Enlight Media threw major advertising muscle behind it, but it’s also worth noting that getting reliable ticket info out of China is not always straightforward, with foreign filmmakers also facing both higher taxes and a lower box office cut. Bait 3D also performed well in Italy, Malaysia, Vietnam and Russia.
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