A display apparatus comprises a display panel, a backlight having emission brightness levels adjustable for each of divided sections, a graphic image generating unit that generates a graphic image signal, a synthetic image generating unit that generates a synthetic image signal representing a synthetic image in which an image based on the graphic image signal is overlapped on the image based on the input image signal, and a control unit, wherein the control unit controls the emission brightness levels of the backlight of a plurality of divided sections containing a graphic image display region, where a graphic image based on the graphic image signal is displayed, to be uniform, and controls the emission brightness levels of the backlight of other divided sections based on the input image signal.