Behind the Scenes: Biggest Films in Australia 1960-1969

Information about how films performed outside the United States in the 1960s was incredibly difficult to obtain. Foreign or worldwide grosses were not reported in any consistent fashion – if at all – during that decade. Even the box office I’ve been able to report on previously, i.e. United Artists, just listed foreign as one all-encompassing entity, not breaking it down by country. So, when the opportunity does arise, it’s fascinating to observe how audiences in different countries react to what comes down the line.

Probably it will come as no surprise to discover that the top film of the 1960s in Australia was The Sound of Music. The musical brought in $4.4 million in rentals (the amount returned to studios once cinemas have taken their cut of the gross). It was the number one film, by a considerable margin, in the United States as well. Astonishingly, given the population differential (12.5 million Aussie inhabitants by 1970 vs 203 million in the US) the rentals were, proportionately, on a par, the movie hauling in $72 million in rentals on home territory.

Second place in Australia went to David Lean blockbuster Doctor Zhivago (#3 in the U.S.) with $2.6 million followed by My Fair Lady (#7 Stateside) on $2 million, in both instances, pro rata, bettering their U.S. box office.

The biggest surprise of the decade was the performance of Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (#39 Stateside) which rocked up in fourth place with $1.7 million. You could probably say the same for the next picture on the list, Lee Marvin-Clint-Eastwood-Jean Seberg musical Paint Your Wagon, which struggled at the US box office. Australia rentals hooked $1.44 million.

Australians proved largely impervious to the flood of westerns that had struck pay dirt at the U.S box office. Big Stateside hitters like How the West Was Won (#12), True Grit (#47), Cat Ballou (#62), The Professionals (#69), The Alamo (#73) and Shenandoah (#77)  don’t feature on this list. The exception was Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (#28) which raced to $1.31 million and placed seventh Down Under.

Whether humor would travel was difficult to predict. As well as  Those Magnificent Men,  comedies ranking better in Australia than in the U.S. were: It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (#18 Stateside) which took sixth spot here on $1.3 million; Tom Jones (#23) 10^th here with $1.06 million; The Great Race (#54) 16^th here on $884,000; and Irma La Douce (#43) 20^th here with $832,000.

But The Graduate, the second-best performing movie in the U.S., failed to emulate that success, coming in 12^th here with $1.02 million. Likewise, comedies that were massive in the U.S. made less of an impact, neither The Odd Couple (#14 Stateside) nor The Love Bug (#22^nd) making this list.

Aussies were as appreciative as U.S. audiences of Sidney Poitier’s breakthrough duo Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (#10) whose $1.08 million secured ninth position here and To Sir, With Love (#19) which took 11^th spot on $1.05 million.

There was comparatively less interest in the spy genre that swamped American cinemas during the decade. James Bond was not the bonanza it was Stateside. Thunderball, ranked 8^th in the U.S., Goldfinger ranked 11^th, and You Only Live Twice ranked 20^th were, 21^st , 22^nd and 30th, respectively here, and not commanding, proportionately, anything like similar rentals.

With $1 million in the kitty, Oliver! outranked both West Side Story ($902,000) and Camelot ($833,000) whereas in the U.S. the situation had been reversed. Here, respectively, they snapped up 13^th, 15^th and 19^th spots whereas in America it had gone 55^th, 17^th and 45^th.

Three outliers which had not made the U.S. Top 100 performed far better in Australia:  Battle of Britain with $776,000 tallied up 23^rd spot, Born Free with $721,000 homed in on 26^th spot and The Great Escape shot up $543,000 for 32^nd. Some other movies in the American Top 100 did considerably better in Australia. Lawrence of Arabia (#28) tracked to 8^th spot in Australia with $1.1 million. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Hatari!, joint 92^nd in the U.S rankings, topped out at 29^th and 33^rd, respectively, in the Aussie version.  

Controversy didn’t fly so well. Of pictures that fell into that category, the best results came from Midnight Cowboy. It was ranked 52^nd in the U.S. rentals race but clocked up $846,000 in Australia to land 18^th place. Conversely, The Dirty Dozen, 16^th in the U.S., only managed  28^th. But other movies laden with sex, drugs, profanity or violence proved to have less appeal. Bonnie and Clyde (#13 Stateside), Valley of the Dolls (#14), The Carpetbaggers (#26), Rosemary’s Baby (#28), Planet of the Apes (#28)  and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (#37) failed to make the cut.

SOURCES:  “All-Time Aussie Rental Champs,” Variety, May 5, 1982, p54; Brian Hannan, The Magnificent 60s, The 100 Most Popular Films of a Revolutionary Decade (McFarland, 2022).