Evidence of meeting #42 for Canadian Heritage in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was films.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Stéphane Dion Liberal Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC
I'm starting to understand it a bit more. You say it's Telefilm that needs to change. That's what you're saying. They need to do something more than what they are doing about marketing.
Executive Director, Movie Theatre Association of Canada
I think they realize that themselves. There's no question—
Liberal
Executive Director, Movie Theatre Association of Canada
Well, there's no question. We are in contact with them obviously. But I just think that the marketing focus...and of course, some films also have distributors, who also need to step up to the plate and spend those marketing dollars as well.
Did you want to add anything to that?
Chair, Ciné Entreprise, Chief Executive Officer, Movie Theatre Association of Canada
No, it's good.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Director, Movie Theatre Association of Canada, Landmark Cinemas of Canada
The only thing I want to say is that I did not come here to have you guys save our industry. We're doing just fine, thank you very much.
Director, Movie Theatre Association of Canada, and Chief Legal Officer, Cineplex Entertainment LP
But we don't want the opposite.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Director, Movie Theatre Association of Canada, Landmark Cinemas of Canada
That's right.
Director, Movie Theatre Association of Canada, and Chief Legal Officer, Cineplex Entertainment LP
We don't know where you stand—
Liberal
President and Chief Executive Officer, Director, Movie Theatre Association of Canada, Landmark Cinemas of Canada
We weren't sure when the invitation came out exactly what we were being called here to talk about other than windows and a few topics.
Liberal
Stéphane Dion Liberal Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC
You should. We should be clear about that, because you're here to tell us how the government may be a better partner for you.
Vice-president, President, Association des propriétaires de cinémas du Québec, Cinémas Guzzo
One of the things we're here to tell you is that everybody else seems to be saying we're sellouts to the Americans and we do not play Canadian films and we have no room for Quebec movies, and so on and so forth. It's as simple as picking up a newspaper and looking at all the Quebec movies that come out. If I don't play one in one of my theatres or if Raffaele doesn't play it in one of his theatres, it's because it wasn't offered to us.
Executive Director, Movie Theatre Association of Canada
I know some of our partners and distributors, and there's a sense that there is not enough screen time for Canadian films, and we wanted to tell you that is absolutely not the case. We give a lot of screen time to Canadian films, but there's no point putting on a film if nobody is in the theatre. We're not saying it's Telefilm's fault, absolutely not. They have worked very hard to change the system. They have. And they are investing more money in marketing. There is no question.
Director, Movie Theatre Association of Canada, and Chief Legal Officer, Cineplex Entertainment LP
It is not limited to small films. A theatrical exhibition is not a passive activity. Simply programming a movie into a theatre does not mean that people will come.
Recently, The Water Diviner, a Warner Bros. release with Russell Crowe—a big name, a big studio—died because they didn't market it. It didn't have much of a run in any of our theatres because once it is dead and no one is showing up, we will pull that title and put something else in.
I gave you the numbers for what Cineplex played in 2014. We played every Quebec movie made available to us.
Vice-president, President, Association des propriétaires de cinémas du Québec, Cinémas Guzzo
You may want to note that.
Director, Movie Theatre Association of Canada, and Chief Legal Officer, Cineplex Entertainment LP
Every Canadian movie made available....
Vice-president, President, Association des propriétaires de cinémas du Québec, Cinémas Guzzo
If you take similar movies on the U.S. side or the European side, movies that fit in the same category as a lot of the Canadian or Quebec movies being made, they are just as unsuccessful commercially. My comments are not necessarily picking on Canadian films or Quebec films. The same kind of American-type movies will have as little commercial success. The difference is that they have 250 million or whatever to try to expunge that issue.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gord Brown
I am going to have to cut you off right there.
When we sent out the invitation, we referenced the motion. The motion was
That, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) the Committee undertake a review of the Canadian feature film industry in order to: a) examine the effectiveness of government funding programs; b) explore ways to promote the value of the industry, the quality production services offered in Canada, and the exceptional content that is created by Canadians; and c) make recommendations to the government regarding support for the Canadian film industry, and report its findings to the House.
That was actually in the invitation.
Director, Movie Theatre Association of Canada, and Chief Legal Officer, Cineplex Entertainment LP
Sorry, excuse me....
Conservative
Executive Director, Movie Theatre Association of Canada
I was told that we were to speak about windows and platforms and how it affected our industry, which I hope we have explained a little bit more.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gord Brown
We appreciate that.
What we are trying to get at is the effectiveness of government programs and the impact they have on the industry.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gord Brown
On that note, we are going to move to Mr. Weston for the next seven minutes.