The 25 Australian films that have sold the most tickets at the box office

As cinemas flickered back to life this year, Australians warmed to the Eric Bana film The Dry.

Director Robert Connolly’s crime drama has taken an impressive $20.4 million at the box office to become the 13th highest grossing Australian film in this country ... closing in on Red Dog and Mad Max: Fury Road.

The top earner for 35 years now is still Crocodile Dundee, which took $47.7 million in 1986.

But these types of achievements always ignore the impact of inflation. They raise the question: what would be the most successful Australian films in today’s dollars?

This masthead took Numero’s box office statistics for more than 1100 Australian films released in the past 50 years and adjusted them for inflation.

The result is a new top 25 that reveals how remarkably successful Crocodile Dundee was all those years ago. It took the equivalent of $129.3 million today - twice as much as any other Australian film.

Twice as successful as any other Australian film when domestic box office is adjusted to today’s dollars: Crocodile Dundee. Credit: Paramount

The top of the adjusted list is dominated by films from last century: Crocodile Dundee is followed by Babe (1995), The Man From Snowy River (1982), Crocodile Dundee 2 (1988), Australia (2008), Gallipoli (1981), Alvin Purple (1973), Mad Max 2 (1981) and Moulin Rouge (2001).

In fact, the eighties is the glory decade for Australian releases with five films in the top 10 plus two others on the list, which is ironic given the industry was largely supported by a widely maligned system of tax concessions at the time. Next is the 2010s with six films.

Topping $20 million at the Australian box office: Eric Bana in The Dry.Credit: Roadshow

While Baz Luhrmann is often derided by critics, he directed four films in the top 25, with George Miller three (as well as producing Babe) and Peter Weir two.

There are limitations to a list like this, of course. With Hollywood studios backing many of the top 25, it misses many smaller-scale films that have succeeded both here and overseas.

One of two films in the adjusted top 25 directed by a woman: Kate Winslet in The Dressmaker.Credit: Amazon

Only two releases directed by women are included - Jane Campion’s The Piano and Jocelyn Moorhouse’s The Dressmaker - which means it overlooks the likes of My Brilliant Career, Somersault, The Babadook, Ride Like A Girl, The Nightingale and Babyteeth.

Also absent are all the brilliant films by Indigenous directors including The Sapphires, Samson & Delilah, Mystery Road and Sweet Country. And many smaller-scale Australian cinema landmarks such as The Castle, Looking For Alibrandi and Animal Kingdom.

But the new top 25 does reveal how success comes in many forms.

It is dominated by stories about unlikely male heroes triumphing against the odds - in films as different as the post-apocalyptic Mad Max series, the horsey period drama The Man From Snowy River and the energetic dance comedy Strictly Ballroom.

But there are also indelible heroines: Tilly in The Dressmaker, Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road, Ada in The Piano and Muriel in Muriel’s Wedding.

Almost half the list are comedies but Australian films can still succeed if they end mysteriously (Picnic At Hanging Rock), tragically (Gallipoli, The Great Gatsby) or with an act of revenge (The Dressmaker).

Five films centre on animals facing challenges: a penguin in Happy Feet, kelpie in Red Dog, pig in Babe, horse in Phar Lap and bunny in Peter Rabbit.

Audiences took to a film about radio telescope technicians: Sam Neill (left), Kevin Harrington and Tom Long in The Dish.Credit: Roadshow

In what sometimes seems like a socially conservative, anti-intellectual country, audiences really took to films about drag queens (The Adventures of Priscilla), a sex magnet (Alvin Purple), radio telescope technicians (The Dish), a famous physicist (Young Einstein), a dancer (Strictly Ballroom), a poet (Moulin Rouge) and a dressmaker (The Dressmaker).

Almost half the top 25 take place in the past. Half a dozen on the list are set in other countries: New Zealand, England, France, Antarctica and the US.

There are films about Australians heading overseas; others centre on immigrants arriving. But only Lion is about a non-Anglo immigrant.

While filmmaking craft is rightly valued highly, a surprising nine hits - including the top four - were made by first-time feature film directors.

For different reasons, three of these first-timers, Peter Faiman (Crocodile Dundee), John Cornell (Crocodile Dundee 2) and Chris Noonan (Babe) - have directed just one more feature film each.

International sales always matter but many of these films were commercial and critical triumphs overseas.

A low budget film that inspired a series: Mel Gibson in Mad Max. Credit: Roadshow

While about a third were based on books, there are a surprising number of original concepts.

There are lessons for filmmakers: some - notably Mad Max - were made for very little money.

And rather than just aim for the safe middle market, Alvin Purple, Mad Max and The Piano were rated R and Mad Max: Fury Road was MA15+.

Centring on a pig: Babe. Credit: Universal

The rise of streaming means that some Australian films will no longer get a cinema release.

But just how iconic the top 25 have become shows the importance of a national cinema. When a film takes off at the movies - just as The Dry has done this year - it becomes an essential part of the culture.