Trade News North (Nov 1977)

CFDC 76-77: Alternatives Tried Theatrical Distribution In the fiscal year ending March 31, 1977, 21 films were released in Canada with CFDC support: 13 in English and eight in French. Domestic box office receipts amounted to $4,820.00. Those with the highest receipts were Shadow of the Hawk ~ $1,000,000. Death Weekend — $850,000, Je suis loin de toi Mignonne — $470,000, Parlez-nous d’amour — $382,000 and Breaking Point $315,000. During the course of the year, Shivers recovered its production cost and joins Black Christmas. The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz and Heart Farm in the ranks of those English-langage films that are now in a profit position. International Distribution On the international scene, Canadian pictures continued to make steady advances. Columbia Pictures had world rights to Shadow of the Hawk. 20th Century Fox played Breaking Point around the globe and pictures such as_ Shivers, Death Weekend, Sudden Fury and Black Christmas were being shown internationally, Death Weekend and Shivers accounted for a good portion of the almost $2,000,000 worth of sales made by Canadian films at the Cannes marketplace. As well, the distribution staff has been working very closely with the Festivals Office in Ottawa to promote Canadian films around the world. To add to our large scale participation at the Cannes Film Festival and the Mifed Film Fair in Milan, Canadian cinema weeks were arranged for Japan, Australia and England to take place later in 1977. At the first annual Festival of Festivals in Toronto in October 1976, the Corporation took over a suite at the Harbour Castle Hotel and 65 video-cassettes of Canadian films were made available to film buyers attending the Festival. The Corporation has also been in touch with the Department of External Affairs and is’ presently arranging for meetings with Canadian representatives in New York, Washington, San Francisco and Los’ Angeles to discuss the problem of penetrating the large U.S. market. The Corporation feels that the slightly improved position in revenue returns indicates a healthy sign for the industry. MONTREAL The Canddian Film Development Corporation has just released its annual report, covering the fiscal year from April 1976 to March 1977. The report covers its activities in production and distribution, and gives valuable statistics. For the last ten years, the federal government has used the CFDC as a tool to create a feature film industry in Canada. There have been ups and downs, and in recent years, the CFDC has had difficulty receiving its funds on a normal and sustained basis. It is because of the central role played by the Corporation and because its annual reports helps us to measure the health of that feature film industry, that lengthy extracts of the report are reprinted here. 1976/77 represented still another challenging year for the Canadian Film Development Corporation, a year in which, perhaps, the biggest story was the highly conspicuous role played in the area of distribution. The Corporation has always considered distribution of films to be one of the most vital ingredients in the entire fabric of the film industry, and this has been indicated by two important initiatives undertaken in the previous year and carried through in the past year — the completion of the first year of the Quota and Investment Programme by Famous Players Limited and Odeon Theatres (Canada), and the launching of the Nouveau Réseau parallel circuit in Quebec. The Corporation assisted in the production of 16 feature films during the year, two less than the previous year. It was one of the lowest years ever. However, it must be pointed out that an additional thirteen major Canadian films or coproductions were produced during the year without the help of the Corporation. While English-language films increased in number from 11 to 12, Frenchlanguage production dropped from seven to four. Thus, for the Quebec scene, the past year was one of the bleakest since the establishment of the Corporation. It is hoped however, that the creation of the Nouveau Réseau and other innovative efforts should help breathe new life into the French-language film industry in Quebec. One encouraging note is that several French-language films released late in 1976 and early in 1977 received good critical and popular support. These French-language films, as in the past year or two, while not returning a profit, provided a small return on their investment. The cumulative cost of the 16 films assisted by the Corporation was $12,023,570 as against a cu ‘mulative cost of $6,194,813 for 18 films in the previous year. The Corporation’s share was $2,714, 917 as against $2,901,855 the previous year or 22.57% as against 46.82%. one year ago. The very marked decrease in the Corporation’s share this year is explained by the fact that the Corporation has not increased its maximum amount of participation in the more expensive coproductions in which it invested this year. Investments from industry sources such as laboratories, dis tributors and exhibitors amounted to $3,359,035 or 27.93% as against $1,978,114 or 31.9% in the previous year. Included in this amount is part of the $2,077,375 Famous Players invested and part of. the $557,500 Odeon invested in the Quota and Investment Programme during the course of the year (see page 9). Investment from the private sector, particularly in the mid-to-high budget productions, showed a marked increase from $688,000 in 1975/76 to $1,425,500 during the current year. Foreign investment increased significantly during the past year from $630,000 last year to $4,524, 118 in 1976/77 because of the Corporation’s involvement in coproductions. All the films supported by the Corporation during the year provided 130 assignments for Canadian writers, directors, producers and production managers, 768 roles for performers and employment for 331 technicians in the Canadian film industry. Laboratories earned $876,500 and equipment rentals some $597,500. This year, in a total of 111. different projects, including the 16 features, the Corporation invested $3,825,885 as compared to $3,832,976; for 75 various projects the yearbefore. ‘ | The Corporation’s revenues: rose slightly from $833,998 in 1975/76 to $847,237. Of this amount, $650,570 came from foreign sales and box office revenue on such films as Death Weekend, Shivers, Black Christmas, The Neptune Factor, Aho... Au coeur du monde primitif, and Les Ordres. The balance came from a short term loan to a producer and purchase of the copyright in three Canadian films by Canadian private investors, In October, the Treasury Board agreed that the future financing of the Corporation should be based on an annual. appropriation instead of a statutory appropriation. The Corporation requested $4,343,000 for fiscal 1977/78 but received only $3,343,000 with an indication that more money could be provided if projects could be presented to the Board which were capable of realizing substantial profits. 1976/77 marked a new step forward for the Canadian feature film industry. For the first time a significant number of major feature films were made without the financia] assistance of the Corporation. At least 13 such films (five of them coproductions) were produced during the last 12 months. This is -at least partly the result of a change in the income tax regulations announced by the then Secre tary of State, the Honourable Hugh: Faulkner, in August, 1975. Under the terms of this arrangement, in vestors in Canadian films are able. to claim 100% write-offs on their investments. Censors: Snipping Down This year, as usual, the reports from the various censor bureaus across Canada make spicy reading. In them we find the lewd statistics of how films come from what country and information on what sort of films Canadians are going to see. Gone is the image of the censor as the big bad man with the scissors, snipping to shreds anything that might offend Aunt Minni in Regina. Many censor boards have become review and classifying agencies — stop gap measures in the whirlwinds of changing morality. In Quebec, for example, the censor has resolutely hung up his snippers. A film submitted either gets accepted for showing or not. If not accepted, it is up to the distributors to nip the offending scenes and resubmit until the film becomes acceptable. So repugnant is the image of censor in Quebec that statistics on how many films are sent back for revision are not even mentioned. In Ontario, on the other hand, the nasty business is conducted more openly and we find out that of the 1196 features submitted only three were not approved and eleven are pending. A review of overall censorship statistics reveal interesting differences between Quebec and the rest of Canada from the point of view of categorization of films. In Quebec almost half of the 960 films submitted received a “for all’ classification while in other provinces this unrestricted category ranged from a 25% in Ontario the good to an astounding 11% in New Brunswick. This difference is all the more surprising when one thinks that even the mention of the word ‘divorce’ could ban a film from Quebec screens a mere 25 years ago. In terms of absolute numbers of films submitted, Ontario leads the way with 1182, Quebec is second and British Columbia is third with 781 followed closely by Alberta. In terms of variety of titles, the smaller provinces range around the four hundred mark. : The Ontario censor report gives interesting information on the country of origin of the films screened. It goes without saying that the United States leads the way but Hong Kong appears as a surprising second. It alone furnished 185 more 35mm. films than Britain, Greece, Germany and France combined! _ And how does Canada fare in these Canadian box-office sweepstakes? Well, in terms of numbers of titles, India is beating us six to one. Voluntary Quota Highlights in the area of distribution over the past year include the conclusion .of the first year of the Quofa and Investment Programme by the two leading exhibition chains in Canada, Famous Players Limited and Odeon Theatres (Canada), and the inauguration of the new parallel circuit, the Nouveau Réseau, in Quebec. The Quota and Investment Programme was begun by Famous Players and Odeon Theatres after signature of two agreements with the chains. Both chains agreed to exhibit four weeks of Canadian feature films in each theatre which they either own or control, except in the case of drive-in theatres, which, due to their seasonal operating periods, would undertake to exhibit one week of Canadian films. The number of weeks of playing time was an arbitrary one, decided upon by the Corporation. Famous. owns or controls 234 theatres in Canada. This number includes 41 drive-in theatres. Odeon owns or controls approximately 123 theatres and this number includes 26 drive-ins, ~ ‘Famous Players ch) Tabulations for the first year’s performance of Famous Players under the Quota Programme show that if the Programme is to be literally interpreted, this company has not met its commitment. Not every one of the 234 theatres committed to the Programme played either four weeks of Canadian films (hardtops) or one week of Canadian films (drive-ins). However, in terms of the total number of weeks that Canadian films were shown, that is, the number of theatres times the number of weeks, Famous reached 90% of its quota. Odeon As for Odeon, the Programme started off very poorly, picked up steam with the third quarterly report and closed out the year with about 65% of its quota achieved if, again, the Programme is to be interpreted as reflecting the number of theatres times the number of weeks of playing time. In any case, even though critics of the Programme pointed out that, stringently interpreted, the Programme was not a success, there is no doubt that it stimulated a larger number of playdates of Canadian films across the entire country than ever before, As well, it is important to know that an unofficial second year of the Quota Programme is now well underway and that performance by both chains is well ahead of last year. As mentioned elsewhere in the report, as part of the Quota and Investment Programme, Famous had invested $2,077,375 and Odeon $557,500 in Canadian films.