Screen industry focus grows post-production revenue

The value of the New Zealand screen industry held steady for the year ending March 2010, at just under $3 billion, Statistics New Zealand said today. It was a year of continuing trends – the post-production sector continued to grow, while revenue from the production sector fell. While New Zealand is still involved in making films, the industry is increasingly specialising in post-production work.

“The post-production sector within the screen industry has almost doubled in value over the past two years,” business performance manager Hamish Hill said. This included revenue from activities such as digital graphics, animation, and effects. At just under $600 million, post-production represented 20 percent of all screen industry revenue for 2010.

Much of this revenue went to contracting businesses, those that contract their services to production companies. Contracting revenue across both production and post-production sectors grew to just over $630 million in 2010, up from $475 million in 2009.

The fall in production revenue was driven by a 50 percent drop in production company revenue from feature films, down from $415 million in 2009 to $202 million in 2010. Funding, which also contributes to total revenue for screen production companies, fell slightly in 2010. Total funding for the industry was $531 million, down from $585 million in 2009. Nevertheless, for the second consecutive year New Zealand-funding of the screen industry exceeded international funding, contributing 55 percent of all funding received.

The Screen Industry Survey covers all businesses involved in the industry, and is conducted annually.

 Geoff Bascand 30 March 2011

 Government Statistician

See also: Screen Industry Survey: 2009/10  –  Information release