Thank you, Neil.
Good afternoon. Thank you, all, for hearing from us today.
I'm Anne Fitzgerald. I am with Cineplex Entertainment. We're one of Canada's leading entertainment companies and operate one of the most modern and fully digitized movie theatre circuits in the world. A top-tier Canadian brand, Cineplex operates numerous businesses, including theatrical exhibition. We're also a joint venture partner in SCENE, Canada's largest entertainment loyalty program, with over six million Canadians as members. We communicate regularly with movie lovers, and they tell us what they want to see on the big screen.
Headquartered in Toronto, we currently operate 161 theatres with 1,651 screens from coast to coast, serving approximately 74 million people in Canada annually. Cineplex trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange and is proudly wholly Canadian owned, employing 11,000 Canadians in our theatrical exhibition business and other businesses.
To illustrate the importance of the preservation of a substantial theatrical window, many exhibitors across North America were unwilling to exhibit even major Hollywood titles when a studio announced its intent to make the title available on video on demand or DVD soon after the theatrical release.
For example, exhibitors declined to run such titles as The Cobbler with Adam Sandler, Only God Forgives with Ryan Gosling, Wild Card with Jason Statham, and The Last Five Years with Anna Kendrick, due to short VOD or DVD release windows.
The April 16, 2015, report issued by the Royal Bank of Canada confirmed the importance of preservation of this theatrical window, noting that 41% of respondents said they would be less likely to see a movie in a theatre if it was going to be available on VOD within 90 days of its theatrical release. A loss of 41% of our customer base would obviously be completely destructive to the theatrical exhibition business. Preservation of windows is the biggest issue facing exhibitors today around the world. We have made great strides with distribution since the first experiments with day-and-date releases to make sure that theatrical and VOD returns can continue to grow.
Here in Canada, Cineplex was one of the first exhibitors in the world in conjunction with distribution to experiment with the concept of the super ticket, selling a ticket to both the theatrical exhibition experience, followed by an electronic download of the same title for the customer to own at home later. The effort is to try to increase the VOD sell-through window without damaging the theatrical window.
It is our well-informed opinion that for movies made for theatrical release, a long theatrical window must be preserved. Were shorter windows to be regulated for any intended theatrical content, many exhibitors would not be willing to screen that content, as our experience shows that customers would choose not to come to our theatres. We continue to work with our partners in distribution to explore new ways to finesse the system. But it's important to note that for a healthy theatrical sector to survive, this window must be preserved.
Over the past decade we have seen the shortening of the window, and it cannot continue to erode. With reference to both the DVD release date and the electronic sell-through release date, whichever arrives in the home first, data from the National Association of Theatre Owners notes that the major studio release window average dropped from 117 days in 2012 to only 98 days in 2014. That represents a 19% decline in the theatrical window, which is simply destructive to the theatrical exhibition business.
Through examples from our colleagues in the United States and in Europe, we can see that the success of the day-and-date release into the home market of a feature film is patchy at best. Not all films are made for theatres. All our members are familiar with customers who make such statements that so and so's title must be seen on the big screen. Our customers also tell us the opposite, that they're happy to wait to see certain films in their homes on their television screens or even on their hand-held devices.
If a film belongs on the big screen, that is where it should experience its first release. And that release should be preserved for the benefit of the film's life, both in theatre and after the theatre experience. If, instead, a film belongs on the television screen or on another platform, it should not test the waters of the big screen at all and should go straight into that alternative format market without delving into theatrical exhibition.
I'll turn to Vince for a moment to continue on windows.