Oz B.O. ablaze in '98

Revenues hit all-time high; receipts up 7.8 %

By DON GROVES

SYDNEY -- Confirming the notion that Australia is fast becoming a mature theatrical market, box office revenues hit an all-time record last year, despite a soft September-November.

Nationwide receipts in 1998 jumped by 7.8% to $A629.2 million ($408.9 million), the 11th consecutive year of sustained growth, as the screen count spiked up by 10.1% to 1,576.

Total ticket sales had yet to be calculated, but the tally probably will have reached 80 million ducats for the first time, exceeding 1997's 76 million ducats.

"I'm thrilled. That is an amazing feat when you consider some people have been saying Australia is becoming a mature market," Roadshow Film Distributors managing director Ian Sands said.

"The industry is still building screens and upgrading key city multiplexes, so I can't see why 1999 can't be another year of growth," Sands added.

Uptick down

The uptick in receipts last year did not keep pace with 1997's gain of 8.7%, attributed by Motion Picture Distributors Assn. chairman Stephen Basil-Jones to the flat September-November.

Basil-Jones was heartened to see that December biz was marginally ahead of the same month in 1997, despite the disappointing debut of "Babe: Pig in the City" and the absence of blockbusters of the caliber of "Titanic" and "Tomorrow Never Dies," which gave the holiday season a huge boost the prior year. But he does not expect this month's B.O. to match last January, when the boat epic and the Bond pic were raking in tons of money.

Basil-Jones forecast that the screen- building rate will start to level off in 2001.

B.O. crown

Predictably, "Titanic" took the 1998 B.O. crown with a record-busting gross of $30.7 million, followed by "There's Something About Mary," $12.5 million; "As Good As It Gets," $12.1 million; "Saving Private Ryan," $11.7 million; and "The Wedding Singer," $11.1 million.

Rounding out the top 10 were: "Deep Impact" ($10.9 million), "Dr. Dolittle" ($10.7 million), "Good Will Hunting" ($9.5 million), "Armageddon" ($9.2 million) and "Sliding Doors" ($8.9 million).

But it was another largely forgettable year commercially for Australian films, typified by George Miller's $92 million "Babe" sequel failing to catch on, and the inability of Gillian Armstrong's "Oscar & Lucinda" to escape its arty tag.