KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand Film Commission invested $1million in The Ferryman, not $6 million, as reported in Deborah Coddington's Herald on Sunday column on November 30. (Some funding was also provided by the NZ Film Production Fund Trust).
The film Trouble Is My Business was granted $25,000 in post-production funding by the commission, in a decision independently assessed before being approved by the commission's board.
The commission says it uses an "industry standard formula" to estimate the home audience for movies on DVD.
And the commission has given significant financial support to all five of New Zealand's most successful domestic films and financial support for nine of the top 10 NZ feature films.
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The Ferryman
The co-producer of The Ferryman, Matthew Metcalfe, has described last week's Coddington column and references to the movie as "patently
wrong".
He says the film has taken nearly $US1m in international sales and box office receipts and has sold to over 38 territories. It was released theatrically overseas where it opened at number four at the box office and in the top 10 in Singapore and Malaysia.
At the time of its release it was also the 8th highest grossing film internationally of the 26 films funded by the NZFC since 2000.
Metcalfe says the decision to release the film to DVD in NZ was made by the film's Australian owners for independent reasons. He says theatrical support at exhibitor screenings was positive.
