​The Castle Is Still Australia’s Favourite Movie

It may be 2022, but 1997's The Castle is still Australia's most popular film.

The movie stars Michael Caton as Darryl Kerrigan as he battles against the compulsory acquisition of his modest family home.

It spawned iconic quotes such as 'Tell him he's dreamin'', 'How's the serenity?', 'It's the vibe', and 'This is going straight to the pool room'.

Back in the '90s, The Castle won Best Original Screenplay at the AFI Awards, as well as Australian Movie of the Year at the Australian Movie Convention.

Now, some 25 years later, it has been crowned Australia's favourite film.

The honour is based on a YouGov survey of 2,297 people published in The Daily Telegraph.

Over one in five respondents, or 21 per cent, selected The Castle as their favourite, while Crocodile Dundee placed second with 16% and Mad Max came in at third with 11 per cent.

Co-writer and director Rob Stitch noted the film's enduring popularity with viewers, despite the passage of time.

"Why has it endured? The cast played it beautifully. No small matter," he told News Corp. "Television repeats have also been a big part."

This enduring popularity has actually discouraged Stitch and his Working Dog colleagues from pursuing a sequel, with the team instead opting to let Australian viewers just have fun with the original.

Despite The Castle 2 being off the table, there could yet be more fun for fans of the iconic original.

"While we were filming it, we had the idea to stage it as a play one day. We'd still love to do that," Stitch said.

The same survey also crowned Hugh Jackman 'Australia's most admired celebrity', with 14 per cent of the vote.

Jackman beat out Cathy Freeman, who had 9 per cent, and Professor Peter Doherty and Olivia Newton-John, both on 8 per cent.

Topics: The Castle, Australia, The Castle, News, Australia