Indian films out-perform Aussie releases at the Box Office
A new report by Nick Hayes, released ahead of AIMC, reveals a historic shift:
Films in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil and other Indian languages have overtaken Australian releases at the local box office — a first for any English-speaking market.
Indian titles have surged from $32.5 million in 2021 to an estimated $50 million this year, while Australian films have dropped from $54.2 million to $16.8 million over the same period. “Australia is now the first major English-language market where a non-Anglophone sector has out-performed the national industry on home soil,” says Hayes.
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“Audience-driven” is not a dirty word: How to build reach for films from development to release
“The taxpayer has invested millions of dollars in Australian films. If no one’s actually hearing about them, is that a good return on investment?”
That was a question posed by Nick Hayes, former head of sales and acquisitions at both Umbrella and Icon, during a Sydney Film Festival panel earlier this month on audience development and maximising film reach.
Hayes lamented that too often, that marketing is the first line item cut to make way for other elements of production. Without marketing assets like social media content, key art and stills, distributors have less to work with and struggle to effectively target interested audiences.
Hayes praised the New Zealand Film Commission’s approach to distribution and marketing grants, suggesting Screen Australia could offer broader support in this space.
In any case, he urged filmmakers to: “Sacrifice that one VFX shot to make sure you’ve still got a marketing campaign for your film.”
Speaking alongside Hayes, Screen Australia chief...
