WELLINGTON, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Soaring Wellington film production drives up the New Zealand film industry revenue to more than 1 billion NZ dollars (695 million U.S. dollars) in 2016, the government statistics agency said Wednesday.
New Zealand film production revenue, doubled last year by Wellington's movie sector and a bounce-back from a quiet 2015, was mainly responsible, said a statement from Statistics New Zealand.
"Wellington is the powerhouse in feature film production in New Zealand," business performance senior manager Daria Kwon said.
"Film production revenue of 644 million NZ dollars (447.90 million U.S. dollars) was recorded for Wellington businesses in 2016, more than double that from a relatively slow year in 2015."
According to Statistics New Zealand, the total revenue of the country's screen industry businesses increased 3 percent in 2016, which had been stable at just over 3 billion NZ dollars (2.09 billion U.S. dollars) for the previous three years.
However, 2016 saw a 15 percent increase in revenue from businesses involved in production and post-production.
Total government funding received by screen industry businesses was 190 million NZ dollars (132.14 million U.S. dollars) in 2016, up 15 percent from 2015. Funding and financing from the private sector and broadcasters decreased 6 percent and 31 percent, leading to an overall decrease of 2 percent in total domestic funding and financing received for producing.
New Zealand screen industry employed 14,000 people, who cumulatively worked in 24,700 jobs or contracts. Total earnings from these jobs increased 6 percent from 2014 to 751 million NZ dollars (522.32 million U.S. dollars) in 2015.
