BMX Bandits to be an Australian First

Leading up to it's Christmas release, BMX Bandits already appeared to be a hit. Many column writers referring to it as, ' a film of quality for all ages' - Truth (Vic) 31/12/83, 'astonishing reversal of form in Australian film history' - The Age (Vic) 02/01/84, and more or less, ' a film based on the BMX bike craze sweeping the world' - Truth (Vic) 31/12/83.

So it's not hard to imagine with this kind of publicity and a release date which coincides with school holidays, that the film was going to do well at the box office. And so it should, with its budget of $1.5 million dollars, talented direction and visually outstanding cinematography. The films producer, Thomas Broadbridge even stating, "BMX Bandits will absolutely return its budget".

And it did! Distributed by Filmways, which exhibited the film through 39 screens in NSW and 128 across the nation during it's Christmas release, which brought in roughly one million dollars in over six weeks.

But the biggest surprise was when Broadbridge was approached by the Britons renowned distributor, Rank, offering a potential release in the UK. Rank had caught wind across the Indian ocean of the money making Aussie flick, and were very interested in helping sweep it into an international market. Broadbrige stated in 83', "Rank are very selective - they're into making money. They were very excited about the look of the film. It's very bright, but they didn't have a clue about the BMX bikes, but after doing some research they saw how popular the sport is".

The bike riding craze started in America around 1970, and in 1983 there was roughly 20 million bikes spread across its states. Other research undertaken by Broadbridge showed that at the time of the films release there was over four hundred and fifty thousand bike cycling within Australia. So Rank would have been crazy not to pick up the film and grab onto the  faddish momentum that bikes had and try redirecting its money making potential towards their own shores. Once the deal had been signed, Rank agreed to roll the film into 65 cinemas throughout the UK.

This deal also signified a first for the Australian film industry, as BMX Bandits was the very first production to be picked up by Rank for international distribution, having rejected other Australian favorites such as Breaker Morant and Storm Boy in previous years. Ranks' reasoning behind this decision still focuses on the film being, 'commercial'.  

But Rank was not the only international distributor who had caught wind of BMX Bandits potential popularity, the biggest French distributor, Gaumont, also bought the rights to the film, and sent it through France and several other European territories.

The only country that neglected to appropriately jump onto the BMX Bandits band wagon was America. Paul F Davies (an associate producer of BMXB) said, "The five major studios in America just aren't into the age group. But we think they've lost sight of how popular this sort of entertainment is". Davies also comments on the test screening they held for American children, who responded well to the film, Davies claiming the kids, "sat there riveted because it's so spectacular." 

However, nothing eventuated for BMX Bandits in terms of a cinema release in America, and instead they decided on a cropped version of the film that circulated through a cable release. Funnily enough, two years later, a film named RAD hit the American screens, which proves to parallel BMX Bandits in many ways. Now I'm not trying to suggest our beloved BMX Bandits has been plagiarized by the Americans, it's just a simple observation I've noticed; and it's a little fishy that they knock back a film for having an undesired target audience, then release a similar film a few years later for the same age bracket.