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Forget the drama over Johnny Depp's dogs. It took the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie to keep Australian film and television production at near-record levels last financial year.
A Screen Australia report has found that production was worth $837 million - down just 1 per cent on the previous year.
But with a sharp dip in television drama, it needed the Queensland shoot for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales to sustain the industry. 
The total budget of Australian series, serials, mini-series and telemovies was down a striking 21 per cent to $237 million during the year. And the volume of TV drama fell to the lowest level in almost a decade - down from 472 to 401 hours.
As well as commissioning fewer programs, commercial broadcasters skipped such long-form series as Packed to the Rafters, Wonderland and Winners and Losers in favour of shorter-run shows.
The chief executive of Screen Australia, Graeme Mason, said even though audiences were responding well to both Australian TV drama and feature films, there were troubling signs that the downturn came even before budget cuts to the ABC, SBS and his own agency had been felt. There were also threats to commercial broadcasters from declining advertising revenue and new streaming services.
He believes the country needs its own Game of Thrones.
"Northern Ireland's entire economy and tourism has been changed by Game of Thrones," he said. "If someone had come up with that kind of thing and made it here ??? we'd be doing a dance of joy down George Street.
"They are the game changer. Those big TV shows actually change your economy and your industry."
Mason said that for television even more than film, the country needed productions that sold overseas: "If we want longer-term careers and businesses and inward investment, you do need stuff which travels."
The chief executive of Screen Producers Australia, Matthew Deaner, described the fall in television drama hours as worrying.
It came as commercial broadcasters increasingly screened second-run programs from New Zealand at odd hours on secondary digital channels, including Agent Anna and Hope and Wire, to meet their Australian content quotas.
Deaner said the TV drama downturn made the entire production industry less sustainable. While six- and eight-episode dramas provided creative opportunities and diversity of programming, they were "incredibly expensive" to establish, which meant more reliance on Screen Australia funding.
The association is lobbying for an increase in the federal government incentive known as the producer offset from 20 to 40 per cent to boost TV production.
"We believe increasing the offset would create significant investment opportunities for producers to explore, taking pressure off Screen Australia funding and opening doors for more international finance and co-productions," he said.
On the state of the film industry, Mason said there had been a "gap year" for Australian features backed by Hollywood studios after Mad Max: Fury Road, The Great Gatsby and the yet-to-be-released Gods of Egypt in previous years.
While that meant spending on Australian films crashed from $288 million to $120 million, the "core Australian slate" remained steady with 35 features including co-productions.
All the new movies shooting here, including Hacksaw Ridge, Thor: Ragnarok and Ridley Scott's next Alien instalment, ensured there would be work for the industry in the current financial year.
"Foreign-funded local is key," Mason said, adding that Screen Australia would be looking at ways to encourage such Australian directors as David Michod, Justin Kurzel, Jennifer Kent and Jane Campion to shoot films in this country in the way that Baz Luhrmann, George Miller and Russell Crowe had been able to do.