This list charts the most successful films at cinemas in Australia by box office sales in Australian dollars. An overview of the top-earning films and record-holders is provided, as well as the highest-grossing Australian productions.
The following is a list of the highest-grossing films in Australia. The list is topped by James Cameron's Avatar (2009) which surpassed his Titanic (1997) to take the local record. Crocodile Dundee (1986) is the highest-grossing Australian film with a gross of A$47.7 million.
RDistributor rental for entire run
| Year | Title | Record setting gross (A$) |
|---|---|---|
| 1940 | Gone With the Wind | 3,426,000 R [5] |
| 1965 | The Sound of Music | 4,437,000 R [5] |
| 1975 | Jaws | 4,620,000 R [5] |
| 1977 | Star Wars | 6,200,000 R [5] |
| 1982 | The Man from Snowy River | 7,821,420 R [3] [6] |
| 1983 | E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial | 11,424,768 R [3] |
| 1986 | Crocodile Dundee | 47,707,598 [7] (19,772,232 R ) [3] |
| 1998 | Titanic | 57,713,717 [1] |
| 2009 | Avatar | 115,781,489 [1] |
RDistributor rental.
The following is a list of the highest-grossing Australian films at the Australian box office. Crocodile Dundee has remained the highest-grossing Australian film for 38 years, even without factoring in inflation.
| Rank | Title | Year of release | Budget (A$) | Australian gross (A$) [7] | Worldwide gross (US$) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Crocodile Dundee | 1986 | $11,500,000 | $47,707,598 | $328,203,506 [8] |
| 2 | Australia | 2008 | $200,000,000 (US$130,000,000, US$78,000,000 after tax incentives) [9] | $37,555,757 | $211,342,221 [10] |
| 3 | Babe | 1995 | $30,000,000 | $36,797,861 | $254,134,910 [11] |
| 4 | Elvis | 2022 | $120,000,000 | $33,486,309 [12] | $285,781,077 [13] |
| 5 | Happy Feet | 2006 | $132,740,000 | $31,786,593 | $384,335,608 [14] |
| 6 | The Lego Movie * | 2014 | $60,000,000 | $29,834,461 [15] | $468,060,692 [16] |
| 7 | Lion | 2016 | $15,000,000 | $29,563,329 | $140,312,928 [17] |
| 8 | Moulin Rouge! | 2001 | $52,000,000 | $27,765,415 | $179,213,434 [18] |
| 9 | The Great Gatsby | 2013 | $105,000,000 | $27,385,977 | $353,641,895 [19] |
| 10 | Peter Rabbit | 2018 | $50,000,000 | $26,760,008 | $351,266,433 [20] |
| Films marked as * are not classified as Australian by Screen Australia | |||||
| Year | Title | Record setting gross (A$) |
|---|---|---|
| 1966 | They're a Weird Mob | 2,417,000 |
| 1973 | Alvin Purple | 4,720,000 |
| 1975 | Picnic at Hanging Rock | 5,120,000 |
| 1979 | Mad Max | 5,355,490 |
| 1981 | Gallipoli | 11,740,000 |
| 1982 | The Man from Snowy River | 17,228,160 |
| 1986 | Crocodile Dundee | 47,707,598 |
High grossing Australian films from earlier decades include:
The cinema of Australia began with the 1906 production of The Story of the Kelly Gang, arguably the world's first feature film. Since then, Australian crews have produced many films, a number of which have received international recognition. Many actors and filmmakers with international reputations started their careers in Australian films, and many of these have established lucrative careers in larger film-producing centres such as the United States.
Crocodile Dundee is a 1986 action comedy film set in the Australian Outback and in New York City. It stars Paul Hogan as the weathered Mick Dundee, and American actress Linda Kozlowski as reporter Sue Charlton. Inspired by the true-life exploits of Rod Ansell, the film was made on a budget of under $10 million as a deliberate attempt to make a commercial Australian film that would appeal to a mainstream American audience, but proved to be a worldwide phenomenon.
Paul Hogan is an Australian actor and comedian. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his performance as outback adventurer Michael "Crocodile" Dundee in Crocodile Dundee (1986), the first in the Crocodile Dundee film series.
A box office or ticket office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through a hole in a wall or window, or at a wicket. By extension, the term is frequently used, especially in the context of the film industry, as a metonym for the amount of business a particular production, such as a film or theatre show, receives. The term is also used to refer to a ticket office at an arena or a stadium.
Crocodile Dundee II is a 1988 action comedy film and the second of the Crocodile Dundee film series. It is a sequel to Crocodile Dundee (1986) and was followed by Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles (2001). Actors Paul Hogan and Linda Kozlowski reprise their roles as Mick Dundee and Sue Charlton, respectively, here shown opposing a Colombian drug cartel.
In the motion picture industry, a wide release is a film playing at the same time at cinemas in most markets across a country. This is in contrast to the formerly common practice of a roadshow theatrical release in which a film opens at a few cinemas in key cities before circulating among cinemas around a country, or a limited release in which a film is booked at fewer cinemas in larger cities in anticipation of lesser commercial appeal. In some cases, a film that sells well in limited release will then "go wide". Since 1994, a wide release in the United States and Canada has been defined by Nielsen EDI as a film released in more than 600 theaters.
John Cornell was an Australian actor, director, producer, writer, and businessman. He was best known for his role as "Strop" on The Paul Hogan Show, and he was instrumental in the introduction of World Series Cricket in 1977.
Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles is a 2001 action comedy film directed by Simon Wincer and starring Paul Hogan. It is the sequel to Crocodile Dundee II (1988) and the third and final film of the Crocodile Dundee film series. Hogan and Linda Kozlowski reprise their roles as Michael "Crocodile" Dundee and Sue Charlton, respectively. The film was shot on location in Los Angeles and in Queensland. Actor Paul Hogan reported that the inspiration for the storyline came during a tour of Litomyšl, Czech Republic in 1993. It was released on 18 April 2001 in the United States. It grossed $39.4 million worldwide and received negative reviews from critics who called it an unnecessary sequel.
The Overlanders is a 1946 British-Australian Western film about drovers driving a large herd of cattle 1,600 miles overland from Wyndham, Western Australia through the Northern Territory outback of Australia to pastures north of Brisbane, Queensland during World War II.
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