In Thursday's Montreal Gazette, Brendan Kelly complained about giving a glowing review for a Canadian film only to find within one or two weeks that the movie, unable to attract any audience, was no longer being screened in theatres across the country. This is standard practice in arts and entertainment. Television series are all too frequently cancelled in the middle of their first season. Broadway is in no way more forgiving. Brendan Kelly is right: we need to do more to build audiences for domestic films.
The easy answer, as I suggested some time ago, is for Quebec and Canadian filmmakers to focus on making films that people want to watch. Quebec's independent cinema owners support the concept of artistic freedom, as well as the wide range of publicly funded programs that support filmmakers. The reality is that films from Starbuck to Monsieur Lazhar and Incendies have been very successful.
According to L'institut de la statistique du Québec, Quebec films rank fourth, or 4.2%, in terms of market share in Quebec behind the United States at 80%, France at 7%, and Great Britain at 6%. We need to build on this foundation in a rapidly changing environment marked by new technologies and methods of distribution. To do so, policy makers in the industry have to recognize that cinema owners have our feet on the ground and are in daily contact with moviegoers.
We are encouraging Quebec filmmakers to make films Quebeckers want to see. We are also urging our partners from government to distributors to endorse a number of simple and inexpensive initiatives that will benefit Quebec owned and operated movie theatres while strengthening the local market for Quebec and Canadian films.
Quebeckers now access films on Netflix, TV, video on demand and, of course, movie theatres. The temptation is to launch a film on all channels at the same time. In theory this should lead to a bigger audience, but the cannibalization is weakening our sector to the detriment of the industry as a whole. Coming to one of our movie theatre houses is still the key to commercial success.
The longstanding practice is that theatre operators have the exclusive rights to a film for the first 120 days after its release. This policy is at the heart of our business model. Changing it would put our fragile and volatile industry at risk, while rewarding filmmakers for making films few people want to watch. Distributors should be able to choose the option best suited for a particular film, but if they opt for a theatre release they should comply with the rules and respect their exhibitor partners.
As has been the practice for some time, producers weary about developing an audience for a film can reduce their costs by going directly to other channels of distribution. In the past the marketing strategies in Quebec have been to build a positive buzz about a film in the major urban centres in the hope of influencing Quebeckers in other regions of the province. With social media there is no time to rely on word of mouth. Now a film has to be screened in Drummondville and Sherbrooke on the same day it is being premiered in Montreal or Quebec City.
For this to work, more movie owners and distributors need funding to support their marketing and promotional efforts outside of the two major urban centres.
Let me stress that we are calling for reallocation of existing budgets, not new money. One of the reasons for the success of Les Boys is that we launched it on the same night across Quebec. Quebec independent movie theatre owners have also enhanced the movie experience by investing close to $80 million on the digitalization of almost all of their theatres.
All of these measures are important. As I said at the onset, the key is what goes on the screen. Moviegoers in every region of the province want to be entertained and to have the chance to view a wider diversity of films. Quebec's network of independent theatre owners are simply asking filmmakers to heed this request, to remember that a good film is a good film even if it's popular, and to work with us to develop the local market and make movies people want to see.
Back to Anne.