Continuing with analysis of Telefilm Canada’s 2023-2024 Annual Report, the box-office ticket sales reported for Canadian independent films is misleading.
From page 19:
“Canadian films earned $29.3 million in ticket sales, with a 14% market share for independent films.”
What’s misleading is that this groups both French and English-language films together, and it doesn’t use the full box office as the denominator to determine the percentage.
From the CMPA‘s Profile 2023, on page 90, Exhibit 10-6 Box office revenue and market share at theatres in Canada, by language market breaks down the cash and percentages to:
| Language | Box Office | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| English | $10.6 M | 1.4% |
| French | $18.7 M | 17.5% |
| Total | $29.3 M | 3.3% |
Note that this assumes a total box office of $889.4 M.
My take: another way of looking at this is that for every hour of film projected in Canadian cinemas in 2023, only two minutes were Canadian — only 84 seconds outside of Quebec. That’s just not good enough.