Last December, I lamented about the poor state of the Canadian film industry. Well, a few weeks ago, a report was released on the state of the Canadian Television and Film industry. You can read it here.
Among the findings? None of the ten most popular films in English-Canadian theaters were Canadian. The situation in Quebec was quite different, with 2 Canadian films making the top 10 list in 2006, and a remarkable 6 in 2005. As for Canadian films in general, only two English films made more than a million dollars (three if you count Bon Cop, Bad Cop.)
What about that movie Water that everyone was talking about? It made $400,000. I somehow very much doubt that that came close to compensating for the cost of producing the thing. Despite Quebec’s much smaller market, five of it’s films made over a million, and none of the top ten made less than half a million. That’s a stark difference to the #7-#10 most prosperous English Canadian films, which made barely over $100,000.
When your biggest films make $100,000, you know there’s a problem. Especially if the government is funding productions to the tune of $48 million a year. Unsurprisingly, American films made up %89 of the Canadian film market in 2006.
