Michael Bodey
Film editor/media journalist
Sydney
Michael Bodey is a film and media writer for The Australian and was previously arts editor, showbiz editor and media editor at The Daily Telegraph and film critic for The Age. John Laws describes him as "a very average reporter." https://plus.google.com/113237382907870616454
Teter Mayhew as Chewbacca and Harrison Ford as Han Solo in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Cinema box-office revenue grew by about 15 per cent to a record $1.23 billion last year.
Buoyed by a range of blockbusters, the Australian box office was on target to beat the record even before the stellar run last month of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
The return of the sci-fi series starring Harrison Ford exceeded expectations, pushing each of the final three weeks of 2015 to more than $40 million in sales, resulting in the highest three-week box office total on record: $137m (or more than 9.4 million admissions).
It was only the second time in history more than $40m has been spent at the box office for three consecutive weeks.
The official 2015 box office figure, which is expected to be confirmed this week by the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia, will replicate record box office years in Britain and the global market, which crossed $US38bn ($54.6bn) for the first time thanks largely to 49 per cent growth in China.
VRL Price at posting:
$6.76 Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
