Vancouver: About 75 independent producers attended the exhibition and distribution trade event ShowCanada April 28 to May 2 in Vancouver, pushing year-over-year attendance up 21% and making the 17th annual gathering more than ever Canada’s feature film industry convention.

The addition of film producers to the 730-delegate roster closes the gap between the manufacturer and retailer in Canada’s film industry, says Adina Lebo, executive director of the Motion Picture Theatre Associations of Canada and chair of the ShowCanada event.

‘This event has become a place to show cinema owners, producers and distributors different ways to work,’ says Lebo. ‘Most [attendees] were impressed.’

For instance, studio tours introduced exhibitors to the front lines of moviemaking, which provided greater context for the distribution focus of the convention. Vancouver-based production company Brightlight Pictures was among the producers to showcase their own work with a nighttime champagne reception.

A regular highlight of the ShowCanada program – between seminars this year on piracy and understanding today’s youth market – is the box-office report by Howard Lichtman, president of The Lightning Group.

In his summary of 2003, Lichtman reports a decline in Canadian box office in 2003 of 1%, to $947 million.

Canadian box office was approximately 9% of North American box office (or 6% factoring in the U.S. currency exchange rate), which is on par with 2002.

Lichtman says the Canadian decline can be compared to the 0.3% decline in the U.S., where box-office tallies dropped to $9.49 billion, down from 2002’s record-breaking $9.52 billion. Box office had been increasing for 12 consecutive years until 2003, which is the longest stretch of escalating box office in the history of the post-war exhibition business, says Lichtman.

‘For Canadian and U.S. box office to come even close to 2002’s record-breaking numbers is still incredible,’ adds Lichtman.

Canadian admissions decreased 6.5% to 107 million in 2003. In the U.S., admissions decreased 4% to 1.6 billion, still considered high volumes, especially factoring in other distractions such as DVDs, videogames and the Internet.

Canada continues to represent approximately 7% of North American admissions. Today, the average moviegoer sees 5.4 movies per year.

In the U.S., ticket prices increased by 4% to $6.03 in 2003, while Canadian prices increased 5% to $7.69.

A big advancement this year, says Lebo, was in the inclusion of Telefilm Canada as a major sponsor, hosting a panel and a dinner showcasing upcoming Telefilm properties including Saint Ralph (directed by Michael McGowan and distributed by Odeon Films) and Touch of Pink (directed by Ian Iqbal Rashid and distributed by Mongrel Media).

‘ShowCanada is an ideal opportunity for distributors to show exhibitors the extraordinary Canadian films that will be released in the coming year,’ said Richard Stursberg, Telefilm’s executive director. ‘As the last and most important link with moviegoers, [exhibitors] have a vital role to play in ensuring that Canadian films have the best possible chance to reach their audiences.’

Stursberg was front-and-center at the trade show, moderating a well-attended session called What Exhibitors Want and Don’t Want from Producers and Distributors – which is, no surprise, features that attract audiences in greater number and help exhibitors withstand the strong-arm tactics of U.S. distribs to make room for their product.

In 2003, the first wave of English-language films produced under Telefilm’s new audience-building guidelines to capture 5% of Canadian box office was released.

The first, Mambo Italiano, was released on 135 screens across Canada and simultaneously opened in the U.S., grossing a total of $8.5 million. Mambo Italiano brought in more than $5.1 million across Canada. It also made the U.S. top-20 list.

Over the last four years, English-Canadian films have taken about 1% of the English-language box office. That’s an average of $5 million per year in total box-office receipts.

The situation in Quebec is significantly different. In 2003, Canadian films in the French-language market nearly captured a 20% share.

At the end of 2003, says Stursberg, the Canadian industry had captured a 3.6% overall market share (18.8% French and 0.9% English) – up from 1.4% in 2001 and 2.6% in 2002.

Along with the popcorn suppliers, lens makers and space-age theater seat manufactures on display at ShowCanada, another growth opportunity appears to be the development of the advertising-driven pre-shows in Canadian cinemas.

Kodak Canada, via its U.S. parent, demonstrated the Kodak Digital Cinema Operating System, which uses the Internet to automate and validate the ads and other promos that flash on the big screen before the trailers run ahead of the feature.

Kodak’s smart promo distributor

Kodak loads up ads in a central server that is smart enough to distribute the promos to the right target market: edgy ads go with the edgy movie, while family ads go with the family movie.

According to Robert Gibbons, director of marketing and communications for Kodak Digital Cinema, Kodak has installed its digital cinema systems in 1,120 U.S. theaters since its launch in November, quickly making it the third-largest supplier in the U.S.

So far, Canada is an untapped market for digital cinema systems, says Gibbons. About 2,000 of Canada’s 2,900 screens show advertising, he says, but all of those rely on the old-fashioned slide projectors that are hard to maintain and verify for advertisers.

While ad suppliers such as Cineplex are interested in the digital cinema system – which can cost in the range of $12,000 to $15,000 per screen depending on the system – no deals were signed at ShowCanada, says Gibbons.

Next year, ShowCanada moves to Halifax and returns to the West Coast in 2006 with an event in Victoria.

-www.showcanada.ca