Why our big producers are focused on the small screen

With hits such as The White Lotus and The Last of Us dominating the cultural conversation, the makers of Australia’s biggest cinematic hits of the past decade are ditching the big screen.

Behind the scenes on the Stan original Black Snow.

The makers of Australia’s biggest cinematic hits of the past decade – much-loved films such as The Sapphires and Saving Mr Banks – are ditching the big screen for the small one.

In the past year alone, expenditure on Australian subscription television has doubled, and it is expected to only get higher with Labor demanding a local content quota from the big streamers.

Hits such as The White Lotus and The Last of Us are dominating the cultural conversation and one of Netflix’s biggest hit shows is Sydney teen drama Heartbreak High.

While cinema attendance is at its lowest rates in years, according to the nation’s top TV and film body, even one of the buzziest films in years, Cate Blanchett’s Tar, is barely filling movie theatres. For all its critical eulogising, Tar recouped a mere $10m of its $30m budget at the box office.

Elisabeth Moss and writer/director Leigh Whannell on the set of The Invisible Man.

Leading producers of film and TV have told The Weekend Australian that they are making a conscious gear change towards the small screen, as feature films become more difficult to finance.

Last year, A record $445m was spent on subscription television in Australia, more than trebling the $119m spent the year prior.

Easy Tiger Productions CEO Rob Gibson said Hollywood was showing little interest in the rom-coms and middlebrow dramas – such as Muriel’s Wedding and Strictly Ballroom – that made Australian cinema world famous in the 1980s and ’90s.

“The movie studios started focusing on big IP-driven tentpoles, the superhero movies and their franchises, which have been hugely successful,” he said.

“As a result, more money has been poured into that, and mid-budget movies, dramas and rom-coms, were dropped. Now it’s all moved to television.”

Black Snow’s writer and script producer Lucas Taylor on set with actor Jemmason Power.

Mr Gibson said that when streamers came along “they wanted to build audience stickiness”. And that demand was only going to get bigger with the federal government’s new cultural policy.

“They wanted audiences to come on to the platform and stay a long time. So they invested in longer-form content,” he said.

With the box office in dire straits, and theatrical dramas across the board failing to draw audiences into cinemas, it is no surprise that the industry is zooming in on television.

“We’ve always believed in the power of great TV to come from anywhere,” said Gibson, whose Easy Tiger Productions produced Colin From Accounts, and the AACTA-winning The Twelve.

“There’s now the opportunity … for an Australian show to reach audiences everywhere.”

Heartbreak High, one of the most-watched series in 37 countries, is proof that, with the right muscle, Australian television can cut through to international audiences. In 2018, pre-Covid, 70 per cent of Australians would attend the cinema at least once a year – that dropped to a historic low of 35 per cent in 2021.

The cast of Heartbreak HIgh attend the 2022 AACTA Awards.

“People’s viewing habits have changed,” Goalpost Pictures CEO Rosemary Blight said. “The pandemic accelerated that us for all.

“A traditional drama can still find an audience but it’s certainly challenging and you have to consider if it may be better-suited to a streaming service than cinemas.”

Goalpost Pictures, which released box office hits The Sapphires and The Invisible Man, says its focus “is more towards television”.

“The quality of television is just getting higher and higher,” Blight said. “Australian television is just getting stronger and stronger.”

The production house, responsible for the hit Stan show Black Snow, has a slate of television dramas across all the major streamers.

“It’s really satisfying to be with streaming services, they know their subscribers, they know what their subscribers want,” Blight said. “It just feels like a clear path to an audience.”