We have talked very little about the distribution of films; we only alluded to it briefly. Distribution is one of the important issues..
For a fiction feature film to receive funding from SODEC, Telefilm Canada or other Canadian organizations, you need a distributor; however, there are not many distributors in Canada and those that exist are large distributors. They also distribute American films. As you know, Canada is considered a national market for American films. There is a whole distribution strategy that does not encourage our national cinema, be it from Quebec or the rest of Canada.
For movie theatres, there is a system called the booking system. The films have to be popular. If a film has not generated good revenue the first weekend, it is immediately replaced by another. Enormous films are the subject of large publicity campaigns. Take Fifty Shades of Grey, for instance. I did not see it, but I read the reviews. The film was the object of a worldwide campaign, and it was first at the box-office everywhere in the world. More money was spent on marketing than on the production of the movie. There was so much publicity that everyone in the world went to see that movie.
It is extremely important that we reestablish a balance. We have to examine the role of distributors and what is required of them. Films that are supported by public funds should rightly be accessible on all platforms. I define myself as an agnostic with regard to platforms. I can view a movie on an iPad, a cinema screen or a television screen. We now have to consider all of these platforms. We have to consider the success of a film according to the number of people who view it on all of these platforms. As long as it is only box-office revenue from the actual theatre that counts, we are always going to have the current problems.