Coming Soon (to a Theatre near You): The Temporality of Global Film Distribution to Australia

Abstract

This article explores the changing contexts of international film exhibition in Australia over a 20-year period (1989–2009) by examining in some empirical detail Australia's position in the global flow of films during this time. It argues that, at the most abstract level, distributors are engaged in the management and mediation of time and space in the field of global communications. It is proposed that distributors, through the organisation of temporal differentiation, are explicitly active in the creation of both cultural and commodity value. This is particularly apparent as film distributors explore and engage new methodologies of film release, which emphasise overlapping, intersecting and contradictory temporalities in the cinema experience.

Chinese cinema and Australian audiences: an exploratory study

“…Then second, Chinese Wanda Cinema Line, headed by billionaire Wang Jianlin acquired a major cinema chain, Hoyts Group and Hoyts Group’s associated cinema advertising company (Val Morgan), and blue ray and DVD rental machines in June 2016 (Reich, 2015). Today, Australian filmmakers are encouraged to take advantage of tax breaks to produce cinema with Chinese filmmakers, while Chinese films now make their way to Hoyts cinemas at the same time as being released in Mainland China thus reducing the release lag that Australian audiences experience with Hollywood films (Verhoeven, 2010). However, Chinese film imports have had limited success at the Australian box office.…”