Yes, but that does not mean eliminating art films.
For five or six years, we have seen quite a troubling decline in the box office performance of Quebec films. Last week, in France, they published the results of theatre attendance for French films. French film producers have 44% of the theatre market for films in France. Here it is 5%. In France, they have managed to galvanize the industry by turning to the consumer more. They are more driven by a film’s success in theatres. I am not saying that we totally ignore that aspect here. However, once more, I feel that there are ways of encouraging producers to come up with better-performing films.
Currently, some Quebec films are performing quite well. Léa Pool’s last film did well in theatres. The same goes for Aurélie Laflamme – Les pieds sur terre , which seems to be getting off to quite a good start. However, other films end their theatre runs without even taking in $100,000 at the box office. That means that only 7,000 or 8,000 people went to a theatre to see them.