It is an outmoded distribution system left over from the 20th century, when it often actually worked. But Australian films still typically get their initial release in the cinema only — often on a couple of screens per major city — resulting in a box office so dismal that it looks as though no one bar the filmmakers’ relatives and a handful of freeloaders who won tickets in a radio competition bothered to turn out. This outcome seems almost entirely unrelated to the film’s quality, which can range from abysmal to excellent.
Then, at least four months down the track, when the film’s existence and the acres of publicity timed specifically for the limited cinema release have been totally expunged from the dimmest recesses of the collective public memory, the movie finally dribbles out as a kind of closely guarded secret via the wonders of rental DVD, a format rarely glimpsed outside of 1990s nostalgia evenings or supermarket automated vending machines.
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