Avengers: Infinity War comes out on top of Australia’s 2018 box office takings
Avengers: Infinity War was the highest grossing film in Australia in 2018, new figures from the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia show.
The Marvel film made a total of $61.8m in revenue from the Australian market, out-doing films including Black Panther, Deadpool 2 and The Greatest Showman.
Its April premiere was the second-highest opening weekend in Australian box office history, pulling in more than $20m.
Coming in behind Avengers: Infinity War was the animated film Incredibles 2, which made $45.7m at the box office. The Disney film came 14 years after the first, and made $10.6m across 4,570 screens on its opening weekend. In 2004, The Incredibles gross total in Australia was $20.9m.
Bohemian Rhapsody, which is still running on Australian screens, came in third place for the year. The film, which stars Rami Malek, premiered in early November with $78m in earnings on its first weekend.
The 2018 box office results
As of this week, the film has made $48.9m, which is more than earnings for The Incredibles. However, at the end of 2018, its total earnings were $42.4m. Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga’s A Star is Born also appeared in the top 10, with $32.8m in earnings.
Other strong performers were Black Panther, which pulled $40.8m, Deadpool 2, with $36m, and the latest Jurassic World, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, with $35.5m in earnings. The Greatest Showman, which stars Hugh Jackman, also appeared in the top 10, with earnings of $27.5m.
The 2017 box office results for top 10 films
Total revenue from box office was $1.245bn for the year, up from 2017’s $1.201bn but down on 2016’s $1.259bn. In 2018, 758 new films were released in Australian cinemas.
John Pearlman, chairman of the MPDAA and CEO, Roadshow Films, said Australian audiences had confirmed their love for cinema.
Of total earnings at box office, Australian films took $55.9m, the highest result since 2015. Screen Australia CEO, Graeme Mason, said it was a great year for Australian content across all platforms.
“For Australian films to finish the year with a 4.5% share of box office is remarkable considering our 92 titles were competing with 908 foreign films for cinema space. Landmark films were added to the Australian cinematic canon, including Ladies in Black and Sweet Country, and we saw the continued resurgence of the feature documentary format led by Gurrumul and Working Class Boy.
“Of the 92 Australian films in market in 2018, 63 were new titles,” Mason said.
The top performing Australian film was Peter Rabbit, which made the top 10 of 2018, with earnings of $26.7m. Meanwhile, Ladies in Black made $11.9m in 2018, Breath made $4.6m and Sweet Country achieved $2.2m in earnings.
Peter Rabbit was also the top performing Australian film internationally, taking $463m (cumulative) across 88 territories excluding Australia.
