boxofficeaustralia

The Australian film industry is regularly bogged down in bad press for reasons real or imagined.

Common gripes include: Australian films are too wanky and pretentious; Australian films are too shallow and stupid; Australian film funders don’t “get it” and, most regularly and most crucially, Australian films don’t make any money.

It’s nice (and rare) to report the opposite. Last year nine Australian films earned more than $2 million at the national box office, the first time – as The Daily Telegraph reports – this has occured in more than a decade.

Here are figures for each of the films:

1. Tomorrow, When the War Began – $13.5 million
2. Bran Nue Dae – $ 7.7 million
3. Animal Kingdom – $4.9 million
4. Wog Boy 2: The Kings of Mykonos – $4.9 million
5. Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole – $4.7 million
6. Beneath Hill 60 – $3.2 million
7. Daybreakers – $2.4 million
8. I Love You Too – $2.4 million
9. Bright Star – $2.3 million

The variety of these nine titles and those impressive numbers provide a striking reminder that genre filmmaking is fundamental to a healthy film industry. The above films include two war pictures, a musical, a crime drama, an animated family movie, a vampire flick, a rom com, a period piece and an awful, awful, awful comedy. See if you can pick it.