The results aren't quite final yet but unless Rogue One goes absolutely rogue we can say with near certainty that the top film released in Australia in 2016 was Finding Dory.
In fact, we can do better than that: while there's likely to be a little movement at the station given the rush of December releases, we can say Dory had plenty of company from the animal kingdom in local cinemagoers' affections.
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Karl Quinn's must-see summer cinema releases
Cinema's not dead! Grab your popcorn - Fairfax's national film editor Karl Quinn brings you his top picks from a plethora of new, stunning filmmaking.
Australians could barely get enough features with creatures in 2016. Of the top 50 films released in the past year, nine featured animals in major roles – from The Jungle Book (7) and Zootopia (10) to The Angry Birds Movie (38) and Snoopy and Charlie Brown (44).
If you include a Harry Potter spin-off packed full of fantastic beasts (6), the abundant jungle fauna of The Legend of Tarzan (26) and add in a couple of holdovers from last year (The Good Dinosaur and Alvin and the Chipmunks: Road Chip) the trend is so strong you can only conclude Australians are nuts about critters.
![Australia went nuts for critters like Pixar animation <i>Finding Dory</i>.](/web/20170106213739im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/p/g/c/x/d/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtl9fv.png/1483501980101.jpg)
As any Hollywood studio executive could tell you, we're pretty keen on superheroes, too. Four of the top 10 movies released in 2016 wore their underwear on the outside, metaphorically speaking: Deadpool (2), Suicide Squad (3), Captain America: Civil War (4) and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (8).
Here's something else we learnt (though in truth we already knew it): while good reviews are welcome (take a bow, Deadpool), superheroes are impervious to bad notices. Suicide Squad and Batman v Superman – incidentally, both from Warner Bros' DC imprint – were roundly slammed but between them took more than $60 million locally. Stick that in your Batpipe and smoke it, Mr Critic.
The highest-ranking movie made primarily for adults was The Revenant, which collected three Oscars in February (including best actor for Leonardo DiCaprio). Released in January, it took $20.31 million to finish the year as the 13th biggest earner locally. But in many respects it was, like most of the films above it, an action movie.
You have to look just below it, to Bridget Jones's Baby (14), My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (15) and Girl on the Train (16), for evidence that there is still a market for movies about relationships. These so-called chick flicks – all of which had plenty of appeal for men, too, if they could be dragged along to watch them – were joined by the Ab Fab movie, Bad Moms, Sisters, Me Before You, How to be Single (and, arguably, the all-female Ghostbusters) in a top 50 dominated by movies made primarily for kids and their parents or that core demographic, the teenage boy (and yes, we know lots of women like action and superhero movies, too).
![<i>Deadpool</i> proved to be a box office hit for 21st Century Fox.](/web/20170106213739im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/o/f/1/a/u/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtl9fv.png/1483501980101.jpg)
There were, of course, plenty of brilliant, thoughtful movies on our cinema screens last year, but they rank well down the list. The audience for such films is shrinking, in no small part because the major exhibitors are reluctant to hand over screens to small films with no marketing budget when they could instead add more sessions for one of those big blockbusters. And when that's all that's on, that's all most people ever see.
It's a self-reinforcing cycle that few local films in particular can break out of. In fact, only two movies from this neck of the woods cracked the top 50 – and one of them, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, is from New Zealand. The other, of course, is Mel Gibson's Hacksaw Ridge – an action movie, certainly, but one cut from a superior cloth.
Arrival's respectable showing ($7.64 million to date) and the near-$10 million haul for The Lady in the Van also suggest there's still an appetite for something other than action and animals, while the success of Wilderpeople – a movie that started small and grew over months by word of mouth – offers hope that quality movies can still cut through even without a big marketing budget, if given a chance.
Pity is, they so rarely are.
Top 50 films released in 2016 at the Australian box office
1 Finding Dory - $48.51m Â
2 Deadpool - $43.27m
3 Suicide Squad - $34.29m
4 Captain America: Civil War - $$33.72m
5 Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – $31.67m
6 Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - $30.76m Â
7 The Jungle Book - $29.73m
8 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice - $29.67m
9 The Secret Life of Pets - $29.54m  Â
10 Zootopia - $28.05m  Â
11 Jason Bourne - $22.03m
12 Doctor Strange - $20.94m
13 The Revenant - $20.31m       Â
14 Bridget Jones's Baby - $17.2m
15 My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 - $15.95m
16 Girl on the Train - $15.95m
17 Central Intelligence - $15.32m
18 The BFG - $15.26m
19 Bad Moms - $15.24m
20 X-Men: Apocalypse - $15.22m
21 Trolls - $14.33m
22 Kung Fu Panda 3 - $13.48m  Â
23 Sully - $13.1m
24 Ghostbusters - $12.39m
25 Me Before You - $12.24m
26 The Legend of Tarzan - $12.04m Â
27 Ice Age: Collison Course - $11.97m
28 Sisters - $11.96m
29 Independence Day: Resurgence - $11.64m
30 Hunt for the Wilderpeople - $11.29m
31 Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - $11.25m
32 How to be Single - $10.97m
33 The Conjuring 2 - $10.77m
34 Goosebumps - $9.84m
35 Star Trek Beyond - $9.69m
36 The Lady in the Van - $9.68m
37 Now You See Me 2 - $9.61m
38 The Angry Birds Movie - $9.59m Â
39 Sausage Party - $8.93m
40 Alice Through the Looking Glass – $8.84m
41 Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie - $8.48m
42 The Magnificent Seven - $8.42m
43 Storks - $8.32mÂ
44 Snoopy and Charlie Brown - $8.2m  Â
45 Eddie the Eagle - $8.18m
46 Hacksaw Ridge - $8.12m
47 The Hateful Eight - $7.93m
48 Bad Neighbours 2 - $7.68m
49 Arrival - $7.64m
50Â The Big Short - $7.49m
And also…
These films were released in late 2015, but did much of their business in 2016
Star Wars: The Force Awakens - $93.81m
Daddy's Home - $21.75m
The Good Dinosaur - $15m
Alvin and the Chipmunks: Road Chip - $14m
Joy – $8.37m
Karl Quinn is on facebook at karlquinnjournalist and on twitter @karlkwin
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