Apples Never Fall analysis outlines benefits of foreign film production in Australia
As the US government floats further tariffs on foreign-made films, research and analysis consultancy Oxford Economics has released a timely report on the benefits of local production.
While the finer details remain ‘fluid’, the US administration has shocked the international film community last week by declaring it would lump a 100 percent tariff on all films coming into the country which had been “produced in foreign lands”.
Coincidentally, research and analysis consultancy Oxford Economics was recently commissioned to assess the economic impact of the television series Apples Never Fall, which was predominantly shot in Queensland throughout the course of 2023.
Starring Sam Neill and Annette Bening, the seven-part limited series was co-produced for streaming service Peacock by London-based production house Heyday Television alongside Australian outfit Matchbox Pictures, all of which are tied NBCUniversal. The Gold Coast was selected as a stand-in for the show’s Florida setting.
According to Oxford Economics, which was engaged by the Motion Picture Association and Australia-New Zealand Screen Association for the study, the nine-month shoot generated an estimated $135 million contribution to Australia’s GDP across 2023-24, more than $80 million of which was through direct spending on local suppliers and labour at a roughly equally split.
Outside of production expenditure, which benefited more than 1,100 businesses of various types across the country and paid for a similar number of full and part-time employees, the remaining ~$50 million of the total figure generated is calculated through induced impact, the flow-on effect of the money spent on local goods and services suppliers and in turn by their employees.
Taking its data from NBCUniversal, Oxford Economics concludes that Apples Never Fall supported 1,700 full and part-time jobs in Australia all up, with every $1 million directly spent by the production translating to $2.4 million further along the supply chain. The firm expects that comparative film and television projects are likely to produce similar economic outcomes.
Local production
Which brings us to the crux of the matter; the generous tax incentives on offer in Australia and many other countries intended to lure US productions off-shore, which has had a significant impact on Hollywood, now said to produce just one fifth of the content consumed by local audiences, leading to the messy proposal for 100 percent tariffs on films made overseas.
In Australia, foreign filmmakers can capitalise on a frequently evolving patchwork of incentives at both the state and federal levels, headlined by the latter’s now 30 percent ‘Location Offset’ rebate. It was previously reported that Apples Never Fall received both this and additional funding from Screen Queensland, along with post-production support in New South Wales and South Australia.
The Oxford Economics analysis doesn’t provide a total sum or breakdown of the tax breaks claimed by the Apple Never producers other than to say that they were ‘substantial’, while calculating that $4.2 in domestic GDP was ‘supported’ for every $1 worth of incentives received on the $80 million budget, the majority of that naturally concentrated in Queensland.
Airing in early 2024, the impact assessment also doesn’t deliberately include the less quantifiable potential long-term benefits of the show’s local production to the Australian economy, such as through the development of local talent and as a prompt for tourism, or even as inspiration for other filmmakers to choose Australia as their next shooting location in a virtuous circle.
