Filming locations don't factor much these days, writes Garry Maddox.
Hollywood studios hold just about all the aces when it comes to shooting blockbusters in countries like Australia. 
A movie costing more than $US200 million brings massive spending during filming and post-production. With crews numbering in the hundreds plus actors and extras, there is also a boost for jobs.
And unless there are specific location requirements - the need to extensively use a desert or mountainous landscape, for example - most visual-effects-heavy big budget movies can shoot anywhere that has vacant soundstages and a decent production infrastructure.
While so-called runaway Hollywood movies once regularly shot in Canada because of its handsome tax incentives, any number of American states and European countries now aggressively chase production with their own attractive incentives.
And if the value of the dollar is low enough - dipping below US75Â¢ - studios in Sydney, Melbourne and the Gold Coast come into calculations.
Mind you, when The Matrix sequels were announced to shoot in Sydney in 2001, the dollar was just US53Â¢.
As it steadily rose to parity - making it virtually twice as expensive for international productions to shoot here - Hollywood filmmakers found cheaper locations elsewhere.
The big budget movies that shot in this country, including Australia, X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Gods of Egypt, mostly had local creative connections.
Why blockbusters are coming back now is down to a combination of financial factors.
These include the attractively low dollar, a federal government tax offset that allows productions to claim back 16.5 per cent of their Australian expenditure, a federal government prepared to stump up additional cash incentives and state governments that are prepared to sweeten the deal even more.
Last year Disney accepted a federal government offer of $21.6 million originally earmarked for a remake of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea plus state payroll tax exemptions to shoot Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales on the Gold Coast rather than in Mexico.
Minor Johnny Depp dramas aside, it was such a successful shoot that Disney is now back with Thor: Ragnarok, starring Chris Hemsworth again and directed by New Zealander Taika Waititi. Pre-production starts in Queensland in the new year with filming from   June.
And continuing the long tradition of sci-fi movies being shot in Sydney, including the Matrix trilogy, Red Planet and the Star Wars episodes Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, Ridley Scott is expected to bring Fox's next Alien movie to town.
While the last one, 2012's Prometheus, was hardly a creative triumph, it took a handsome $US403 million around the world.
With the federal government kicking in $47.25 million for the two movies - plus whatever state governments and studio operators are offering - the deals are clearly attractive. In return, the movies will bring what the federal government says is $300 million in offshore investment and more than 3000 jobs.
While Disney executives are famously hard line, there is no better studio to foster a relationship with given its production line of Marvel comic book movies and newly rebooted Star Wars franchise.
The federal government should aim high now. With Disney having taken over from Lucas, it's time to lure the Star Wars movies back.