The theatrical success of Barbie, The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Oppenheimer helped propel the Australian box office to its best year since the pandemic in 2023, though it still trailed pre-2019 levels.
The local box office exceeded an estimated $985 million, 4.6 per cent ahead of 2022’s $941 million, as reported by Numero. In 2021, figures tallied $605 million and 2020, amid the height of the pandemic, the box office totaled a mere $401 million.
In 2019, the box office ended at $1.228 billion, a figure it had hovered around in the five years prior. The industry’s best year on record was 2016, when it reached $1.259 billion. The biggest challenge faced by the market in 2023 were release delays due to the US writers’ and actors’ strikes, in addition to the cost of living, and continued COVID recovery.
