Andres Landau, co-founder and editor at Victory Social Club, watches Zach Cox, co-founder and colourist, work in the colour studio in Toronto, where they work on film, TV and commercial projects.Melissa Tait/The Globe and Mail
Screen production across Canada fell 18.5 per cent to pre-pandemic levels, the Canadian Media Producers Association says, in large part due to Hollywood-strike slowdowns and fewer Canadian commissions.
The $9.58-billion in shows and movies being filmed between April, 2023, and March, 2024, was in line with the pre-pandemic 2019-20 fiscal year, but much lower than the $11.75-million worth of Canadian production in 2022-23.
The CMPA said in its annual Profile report on the Canadian screen industry, released Thursday, that English-language Canadian commissioning slowed down more than the French side of the industry. It also found that smaller production companies as well as children’s TV and animation producers were disproportionately hit by the trend.
In the U.S., the production-data platform ProdPro has reported a similar downturn, including a 37-per-cent drop in projects being filmed in the first half of 2024 versus the first half of 2022 – the most recent comparable period not affected by the Hollywood strikes.
The Writers Guild of America spent five months last year on strike, while members of the SAG-AFTRA actors’ union walked off the job for four months, as both unions sought better compensation and protections around the use of generative artificial intelligence.
As has been the case for nearly a decade in Canada, foreign productions accounted for the biggest share of production volume last year, at $4.73-billion, the Profile report said. Canadian television accounted for $3.25-billion; in-house broadcaster productions were at $1.16-billion; and Canadian theatrical features were at $440-million.
Ontario had the most production activity, the CMPA said, at $3.23-billion, followed by Quebec at $2.9-billion and B.C. at $2.37-billion.
The CMPA said it hoped the late-2025 implementation of the Online Streaming Act, whose implementation is under review by the Canadian Radio-television Communications Commission, would result in new investments in Canadian content and boost the screen industry.
The Profile report was compiled by the creative-industry consulting firm Nordicity with assistance from the Department of Canadian Heritage, Canadian Media Fund, Telefilm Canada and the Association québécoise de la production médiatique.
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