Australian films reach 101m viewings
Screen Australia has found that the 100 Australian films released between 2007 and 2009 have reached an audience of “around 101 million viewings”.
“I strongly believe in evidence-based policy making and this research will be a vital component of Screen Australia’s submission to the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy’s Convergence Review,” said CEO Ruth Harley.
The agency has released a new report entitled Beyond the box office: understanding audiences in a multiscreen world, which reveals the new standardised metric used to evaluate “the number of times content is viewed across its first release life cycle”, as well as patterns of screen media consumption in Australia – including consumption of DVD/Blu-ray and online video.
There are five main findings:
Obvious Dr. Harley knows where we should be heading – just doesn’t know how to get us there?
How very funny to hear Dr Harley talk about evidence-based policy. Perhaps her media adviser read about it in a Treasury circular and put it in a brief. Under her leadership evidence isn’t something Screen Australia uses to base its decisions on.
“Never underestimate the power of numbers”.
Under Dr. Harleys esteemed leadership were getting 4.5% of our own $2.6 billion market. While we might call it entertainment (bums on seats) – others prefer evidence based policy – in poker parlance thats called a tell.
Quick summary of entire 20 page document (and no doubt, ridiculous amount of time and $$$ spent creating report);
The majority of any film’s total overall audience will watch the film on DVD or TV, rather at the theaters.
You don’t have to be a genius to work this out.
Am I alone amongst filmmakers in knowing nothing at all about the Screen Australia forum that is taking place in Sydney tonight – Monday 2nd?
Only at 7 pm, when I read of it here @ Encore (“Encore will report live from the Sydney event tonight”) did I become aware of it!
As far as I can tell there has been no Screen Australia press release before today that mentions the forum and even today’s press release does not mention where the forum is to be held! Is the forum open to filmmakers?
Anyone with any clues, please enlighten me!
@ Dean.
Old rule of thumb calculation for annual AUS domestic takings was double Box Office via overseas sales – domestic rentals sales – other ancillaries.
Concede underestimated latter – given size of ever expanding global www – its hunger for “content” – even more ademant current 4.5% market share can – most be bettered? Objective not about ego – money or prestige – ” jobs & opportunities” (lack of them).
@JR.
According to SA – function of which you write was held in Sydney on Tues 3rd – another one in Melb this Fri – althought admit couldn’t find myself – they did assure details were posted on website.
@Mercedes
I did an extensive search. No mention of venue or time anywhere online. Not in Screen Australia press release or email send-out. I hear it was an invitation only event and only 50 people there. I wonder if this ‘forum’ will be held up as an example of Screen Australia engaging in dialogue with the industry!
James – let me assure here & now nobody has a bigger axe to grind with SA than yours truely – however this does not cloud or infringe my ultimate objective of making commercially viable features – strange as it may sound this occasionally entails making toll free calls to SA to clarify situations.
Don’t become obsessive with SA bureacracy or its personel – its poision – I’ll waylay you – know – cost me years of creative writing – concentrate on what you do best – your films (build it and they will come) – been seeking sucess at this gig over 2 decades – filmmaking ain’t easy.
.
The vast majority of this document appears to be cobbled together from various International resources and reports that appeared on the Internet over the last 12-18 months.
Just substute ‘Australia’ for country X, the generalised statements and conclusions reflect universal trends across the board, nothing new here, just add a few generally know local stats and ‘hey presto’ one half baked report! Screen Australia should get the award for stating the bleeding oblivious, I wonder what it cost us.
The report would be laughable if it wasn’t so tragic in it’s implication.
Mercedes, whoever you may be, rest assured that I put most of my energy into my creative work. However, I remember Truffaut saying, many years ago, that to be a filmmaker you need to be an artist in the morning and a businessman in the afternoon. I think to that can be added – a politician in the evening. Dialogue, debate, tossing around ideas, challenging the status quo are all part of parcel of being a filmmaker.
GB – you by chance same GB of SPAA ?
I think the fact that SA held a forum and kept it some kind of shoddy secret is outrageous…who do these people think they are? I”LL EXPLAIN IT SA: YOU”RE GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES, YOU’RE ACCOUNTABLE! They cobble a report together that anybody with internet access and some insight could chop together in a couple of days. With regard to JR, you’re right debate, dialogue, tossing around ideas..that’s not just the the parcel for filmmakers its the parcel for all artists. Somehow we have closed our eyes for too long only to wake up in this nightmare. We haven’t seen one person stand up and explain what the hell went wrong with A Hearbeat Away, why this turkey was given a cent. Chris Fitchett and Chris Brown, if you can put your hand out for government cash..explain how two people who promote themselves as having a great understanding of cinema can get it so horribly wrong. SA why did you back this film? its decisions like this that just show you the system we have in place just isn’t functioning at the kind of level the industry wants. Filmmakers live by their decisions every step of the way, we need to sign contracts that ask us to act in good faith with SA..why are our government employees immune from this same sense of good faith and accountability? The whole thing is just absurd.
All this report proves is that most moviegoers are wary of spending money on theatre tickets, parking, food and where necessary, costs of a babysitter to see an Australian film at the cinema. Watching it on DVD later is a far less riskier premise. Like it or not, any stats Screen Australia or its ilk manage to produce will only reaffirm the basic fact that the local film industry is on the nose with moviegoers and they are unwilling to pay up to see said films at the box office.
The sorts of sour comments about our funding agency by James and others are sad, but typical.
This is a thoroughly prepared document showing a big effort and careful thought by a professional research team. We had to take the discussions about film ‘beyond the box office’. Anyone dealing with Canberra, including the Board, was very aware of the need to find a story to tell about the results of feature film development and funding programs that wasn’t just apologetic. Muriel’s Wedding is starting to get a bit old. That Queensland Liberal boy MP probably wasn’t even born then.
Now we’ve got a way to say that it doesn’t matter that no-one is willing to pay to see Australian films, because they’ll watch them on tv.
Screen Australia doesn’t have a corporate box at the tennis or the AFL, so this was a polite, intelligent invitation-only event with consultants and important people. If it had been open to riff raff then the message would have been lost. James would have pointed out that most of the “viewings” were from a small number of blockbusters, and that even though he’s not funded because his material isn’t audience-centric Screen Australia isn’t doing any better by giving its special friends the chance to waste money on silly pretentious films about sex.
That would have spoiled the party.