Aussie film sector doubles to $4.5b, but Hollywood strike impact looms

afr.com:

Investment in Australia’s film and television sector has more than doubled in five years, with revenues across the industry rising to $4.6 billion in the year to the end of June 2022.

That’s up from $2.3 billion in 2016, according to a major Screen Australia survey conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. It also shows there are now more than 4500 businesses in the film and video production sector, up from 2819 five years earlier.

Huge spending by international studios in Australia and competition between streaming companies such as Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video have boosted the industry, Chris Spry, the managing director of Sydney-based visual effects firm Fin Design, said.

But rising costs and an ongoing writer and actors’ strike in Hollywood are weighing heavily on future growth prospects.

Chris Spry from visual effects business Fin Design.  Louie Douvis

Fin Design has worked on blockbusters such as Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Shang-Chi, Netflix’s Extraction 2, and high-end advertisements for brands including Hyundai and Virgin Australia. In 2015, Fin Design had about 20 people. “The peak we got to was about 180 seats. We’re about 165 now,” Mr Spry said.

“It really has been the advent of these streamers competing against each other for new content. A lot of them, when they started, like Netflix, it was just back catalogue of other people’s stuff. And then over time, we’ve had Disney+ and Paramount+ and Hulu. So really, that growth is global. It’s not just in Australia. There’s definitely more content being made, and more money being spent on that content.

“I think it’s a golden age, for us and particularly for Australia.”

A weak Australian dollar, an effective system of rebates