Here are the latest box office figures of Australian productions. Check it.
The award winning Samson and Delilah has taken back its $1.6m budget at the box office, with $2.6m at the box office. Albeit after ten weeks on the screens.
Adam Elliot’s Mary and Max however has oly taken back just over an eighth of its $8m dollar budget, which suprises me as it shows even the Australian claymation rockstar hasn’t got the name to bring it back.
A truly crushing, and almost ballbreaking statistic shows the cheesy (and deliberately so) horror Prey taking back $1,000+ from $4m. Fuck a duck.
Go through it all for yourself, it’s depressing stuff. With statistics like these, what does Screen Australia say?
The problem is there is no budget left with these films for mainstream in your face publicity. It is also impossible to get on very mainstream TV programs – Like ROVE, ACA etc – even for Oscar Winners like Adam Elliot.
Another big problem is that they don’t seem to show in the previews at the cinema – I will often base my next film selection on what I have seen in the cinema previews. Again there is no budget left for this very effective advertising.
The savior for Samson and Delilah was their great win at Cannes and the double 5 star rating from David and Margaret (a very rare thing indeed) – this afforded the film greater mainstream publicity – at no extra cost.
Totally right Sarah, there should be a slight re-tinkering when it comes to the advertising. But yeah, exposure is unlikely even with a significant amount of cash, and programs like ROVE and what not would probably need a shitload of hype before they warranted a spot for Australian film makers or Adam Elliot.
Do you recall ACA’s reports on the ‘Saw boys’, as in James Wan and Leigh Whannel of Saw fame? They were given exclusive spots on the show when their film started creating a stir internationally. It was insane. Yet of course, that was a Hollywood film, albeit one produced for a little over $1.2m. Yet you look at The Combination which received so much media hype yet still did so little at the box office, was this because the film had so little screens?
If you’re interested, I will be posting something new on Robert Connolly’s white paper: ‘Imbracing Innovation’ which he has written for the Centre for Screen Business.