‘They want a reason to get off the lounge’: How the Australian cinema industry is winning back moviegoers
In 2019 – pre-COVID – the Australian cinema industry made over a billion dollars at the box office and since the effects of the pandemic, the battle to get people back to the movies has waged on.
It’s fair to say that 2023 Universal Pictures blockbusters, Barbie and Oppenheimer – or Barbenheimer – kickstarted cinema’s comeback, as both films brought in a record $31.4 million in ticket sales following their same-day releases last July. Barbie has since gone on to break $1 billion at the box office, while Oppenheimer came close to that figure, but swept this year’s Oscars winning a stack of awards including Best Film.
Appearing on the latest episode of Mumbrella’s one-on-one podcast, Universal Pictures ANZ director of marketing, Suzanne Stretton-Brown, said originally she was concerned that the same-day releases could hurt the other.
“In theory, they were competitors, right? Even though [they’re] very, very different and had different audiences,” she said.
“But there was that feeling like, ‘Oh gosh, is there going to be a winner and a loser?’ And what was so extraordinary is that they were both winners… Barbenheimer sort of transcended not just the entertainment experience, it became something that captured a sort of a collective imagination. I think it fostered a sense of community.”
Prior to this, as cinemas were forced to close during the global lockdowns and the rise of streaming services took over, the industry was forced to adapt coming out of the pandemic.
How the cinema industry gets people back to the big screen from the small screen is the key challenge now, according to Stretton-Brown.
“I think the thing that we’ve noticed is that obviously since the pandemic and with all the changes to entertainment consumption habits, is that those films that were traditionally doing more modest box office… we’re finding it harder to get out because you have to create. Consumers now, they want a reason to get off the lounge because they’ve got so much choice.
“And that is the category at the moment where we’re really trying to figure out and find new strategies around.”
Listen to the full episode with Stretton-Brown here.
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Neil Griffiths is the editor of Mumbrella. He joined the company in October 2023.
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