Australians Took Over Hollywood. Their Own Box Office Had to Wait.

In a rare feat, three locally made movies are the biggest hits in Australia, thanks in part to stars intent on homegrown stories. It only took a pandemic.

Audiences know Eric Bana as a Trojan prince, Mossad agent, time-traveling Chicago librarian, and an easily angered Berkeley scientist. But as his Hollywood career took off, rarely did they get to see the Melbourne native play an Australian. By and large “there are just no Australian parts in any international films,” Bana said in a video interview from his home in Melbourne, adding, “When you consider the impact that Australian actors have had internationally over the last 30 years, they must be pretty used to hearing our voices — because we’ve done a lot of talk shows.” Even in Australia, audiences tend to flock to the latest imported Hollywood releases over films made in and about their own nation. But in February, for reportedly the first time in the country’s box-office history, the top three films were all Australian. Two of those — “The Dry,” starring and produced by Bana, and “High Ground,” with Simon Baker — are receiving American releases this month, while the Naomi Watts-led “Penguin Bloom” premiered globally on Netflix in January.