Australian share of video sales drops
Screen Australia reveals new home entertainment figures, with Australian accounting for 7.6 percent / $47m of the retail value of the home entertainment in 2009 but “foreign movies still dominated video sales overall”.
Baz Luhrmann’s Australia (Fox) was the biggest selling title in 2009 (sales value and units sold), with Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities as the highest-earning TV drama and Love the Beast heading the Australian documentary list.
Australia was followed by Twilight (Hoyts), Pink – Funhouse Tour: Live in Australia (SBME), Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Paramount) and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Roadshow).
Australia’s 7.6 percent share (including sales for US production Knowing) was the second consecutive fall, down from 7.9 percent / $49.5m in 2008. In contrast, the number of Australian titles within the top 1,00 and their share of units sold both rose from 2008, marking the first rise in titles over the last five years, up slightly from 65 to 68.
Blu-ray sales grew by 1 percent, while DVD sales fell in both value and units.
