Here’s an interesting article about the state of Canada’s indie cinemas.
Jeff Knoll, the CEO of Film.ca Cinemas said:
“Revenues are down, people aren’t coming as much to the movies, the quality of the films is questionable and there wasn’t as much support coming out of the pandemic from the federal government – they were all keen about helping us during the pandemic and we thank them for that but when it was over there was no ongoing support and its really left us floundering.”
But he also stated that Hollywood’s distribution policy was at fault,
“A lot of independent cinemas couldn’t take part in the big lift that was ‘Barbenheimer’ last year. People kept saying the blockbuster is back but a lot of independent cinemas didn’t have access to ‘Barbie’ or ‘Oppenheimer’ for months and month and months.”
This seems like a strange state of affairs, but I wonder if the members of our community, from Canada have a different point of view on this?
https://toronto.citynews.ca/2024/03/17/canadas-independent-cinemas-in-cr...
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Geoff Hall Something I noticed in the last few months is that the showtimes are now 4PM and later. There are no more afternoon showings. :( That's when I always liked to go because I'd have the place to myself. Except for Barbie. It was ALWAYS packed, even up to the last showing.
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Thanks for sharing, Geoff Hall. The article says "“People kept saying the blockbuster is back but a lot of independent cinemas didn’t have access to ‘Barbie’ or ‘Oppenheimer’ for months and month and months." That's strange. I'd think the companies who own "Barbie," "Oppenheimer," and other blockbusters would want to show them in indie cinemas right away, like in the big cinemas.
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Debbie Elicksen Hi Debbie, as well as scheduling problems, the article also mentions that the quality of films isn’t as good, but I suppose this could be put down to finance problems? have you noticed this too?
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Maurice Vaughan yes, that is strange isn’t it? Why would distributors (or the studios) not want to maximise their profits during a time of maximum exposure and publicity for the film? Someone must know the answer to that. I wonder of Debbie knows? Debbie Elicksen
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Geoff Hall You give me too much credit. lol. Perhaps the quality is not there because of the catchup still needed after the strike. But I do notice that the selection is not great at the theatres this time of year. It usually improves in the summer. Still, I have not been tempted to see any film since Eras. The ones that are showing, I feel like I can wait until I can rent them off Cineplex or wait until they appear on Netflix and Prime.
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Debbie Elicksen so actually part of this could be put down to the usual seasonal fluctuations and that the early part of any year is thin on films. However, it would be interesting to find out what’s in the pipeline for production/post-prod/release. Thanks for your humble feedback, Debbie! Lol.
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it sure would be great to find out what is coming up soon