Theatrical Ain’t Dead for Local Films

The success of director Miki Magasiva’s Tinā in theatres brings into focus theatrical exhibition at a very relevant time with the Ministry Of Culture and Heritage’s Media Reform Discussion document out for feedback.

Tinā ranked the third-biggest opening week for a New Zealand film, behind Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Sione’s 2: Unfinished Business.

In only its second week of release, last weekend’s attendances saw Tinā’s total take increase to $1,992,389 at the NZ Box office, pushing it into the top 10 films in NZ of all time.

At a time when streamers, digital convergence and a high cost of living are supposedly ringing the death knell of theatrical, it’s clear that Kiwis will still turn out to theatres for a film that resonates.

And it’s not just in New Zealand.

Reported in screendollars.com, “the popularity of movie going in China fueled a US $3.8 billion global box office take for February 2025. This made February the second highest grossing of the decade to date, only falling behind July 2023 when the ‘Barbenheimer’ phenomenon drove receipts. What’s more, it also meant that Global results topped the pre-pandemic three-year average (2017-2019) by 7%.” And it’s Chinese films that often drive the box office there. Read the full article here.

In France, where film is seen as a key component of French culture, Le Monde reports that The French industry recorded a million more cinema-goers in 2024 compared to the year before and is back to the same level of revenues as the pre-Covid era, setting it apart from its peers, industry figures show. The French being French, they ensure through government policies, various incentives, taxes and fees that French film production and distribution is well funded, and that French audiences get to see films at reasonable prices. Read more here.

While other European countries aren’t faring quite as well as France, The European Audiovisual Observatory told us at the end of last year “that cinema attendance in 2024 was down 2% over 2023, and that it appears to have settled at around 24% below pre-pandemic levels (2017–2019), suggesting that the post-pandemic rebound has run its course and that the market may have reached a new equilibrium.” Read here.

Back home in New Zealand, we can see similar indicators from box office numbers thanks to Box Office Mojo, with a decrease in receipts in 2024 from 2023 at a higher 10%, and a drop of around 28% from pre-pandemic levels in that 2017 – 2019 period. Whether or not we are reaching a new equilibrium or not here is unclear, at least to me.

New Zealand Yearly Box Office

Data as of Mar 11, 19:47 PDT

Source: Box Office Mojo

Our domestic film ecosystem is far more fragile and far less supported than in Europe, which is why it’s so important for Kiwis to keep turning out for New Zealand films, as encouraged to in this RNZ article here.

But that isn’t to say that every Kiwi film has to be a box office smash to be a good film. More importantly, it has to find its audience, both domestically and internationally, whether that audience be niche or broad.

In the meantime, let’s celebrate the success we are having. Congrats, Miki and team!

Tui Ruwhiu
Executive Director

Last updated on 9 April 2025