Screen Australia Data Reveals Marketplace Financing Covers Only a Fraction of Production Budgets

Screen Australia has released a new analysis of 197 narrative production applications submitted between January 2023 and October 2025, finding that marketplace contributions – while a consistent presence in finance plans – are rarely enough on their own to fully fund a project.

The data, drawn from 119 feature film, 59 adult television drama and 19 children’s television drama applications, was compiled by the agency’s Market & Audience team to help producers benchmark realistic expectations for distribution advances, minimum guarantees, presales and gap financing.

Among feature films, 97% of applications included an ANZ distribution advance, though most represented less than 5% of total project budgets. Ninety-six percent of applications had a rest of world (ROW) sales agent attached, and 48% of those agents provided a minimum guarantee (MG) upfront. Most MGs came in below AUD500,000 ($345,000), though a number of higher-budget titles secured guarantees exceeding AUD2 million ($1.38 million).

Gap financing featured in 34% of feature film applications, with reliance concentrated in the AUD5 million-AUD15 million ($3.45 million-$10.35 million) budget range, where roughly half of projects required it. Seventy percent of projects that used gap financing carried gaps greater than 10% of total production costs.

ROW presales appeared in 19% of feature film finance plans. Notably, seven projects with budgets under AUD5 million ($3.45 million) secured presales, and three of those saw presales account for more than 30% of budget. Official co-production partners featured in just seven projects, or 6% of the sample, with the AUD5 million-AUD10 million ($3.45 million-$6.9 million) range accounting for more than half of those deals. Ireland was the most common partner territory, appearing in nearly half of all co-productions, alongside Canada, France and India.

On the television side, adult drama projects leaned more heavily on distribution advances than presales. Eighty-one percent of the 59 adult TV applications secured an international distribution advance worth at least 10% of budget, and 51% landed advances between AUD500,000 and AUD1 million ($345,000-$690,000) per broadcast hour. Gap financing was absent from all 59 projects, while presales featured in only about 5% of the sample. Just one project in the adult TV group had an official co-production partner, contributing between 25% and 30% of budget.

Children’s television told a different story. Just over half of the 19 projects analyzed had budgets between AUD5 million and AUD10 million ($3.45 million-$6.9 million), and 53% secured a distribution advance worth 10% or more of budget – with producers generally able to expect a contribution in the 5%-15% range. Presales were considerably more common than in adult drama, appearing in 42% of applications, and 38% of projects secured presale contributions exceeding 10% of budget. Sixteen percent of children’s projects had co-production partners, all of which also carried presales in their finance plans.

Screen Australia said the findings underscore that marketplace support is closely tied to a project’s commercial scale and international appeal, and that producers who combine multiple funding sources – rather than relying on any single marketplace commitment – are best positioned to close their finance plans.