In 2004, 4.5% of what Canadians spent at theaters went to Canadian films, up from 3.6% in 2003, evidence that the industry is inching ever closer to Telefilm Canada’s goal of a 5% market share for domestic films by 2006, according to stats released last month by the federal agency.

The domestic box office actually surpassed its controversial target, hitting 5.6% briefly in April, before dropping again.

Telefilm figures show that in 2004, Canadians spent over $910 million at the box office, with $41 million of that going to domestic films. In 2003, the total box office was just shy of $950 million, with only $34 million for homegrown fare. However, as has been the case for the last four years, Quebec films account for most of the domestic market share.

French screens pulled in $138.4 million last year, with over $29 million, or 21% of the market share, coming from domestic fare. Camping Sauvage, for example, brought in more than $4 million and Dans une galaxie près de chez vous – Le film boasts box-office receipts in excess of $2.8 million.

In English Canada, however, where moviegoers spent $771.9 million at theaters (down from $806 million in 2003), $12 million, or just 1.6% of the market share, came from domestic films. The English-language films brought in $4.8 million more in 2004 than in 2003, and Telefilm’s feature film head Ralph Holt says he is impressed by the growth of English features since the inception of the Feature Film Policy and its 5% goal in 2001.

‘In the case of English-language films, the box office has grown from 0.3% to [1.6%]. Those are still small numbers, but that’s a [five-fold] increase over the course of four years,’ says Holt.

He points to 2004 success stories such as The Corporation, a feature doc that grossed over $1 million, and Going the Distance, a teen flick from CHUM that pulled in $1.4 million, as contributing to what he sees as a successful year for English features.

‘Then we had unexpected help from commercial films like Resident Evil: Apocalypse, which was Canadian content but financed outside the public support system [apart from tax credits],’ says Holt. ‘In some respects, those commercial films don’t necessarily speak to what we identify as ‘Canadian film,’ but they’re definitely what Canadian moviegoers want to see.’

Resident Evil, an 80/20 Canada/U.K. copro produced by Don Carmody (Chicago, Gothika) and shot in Toronto, grossed over $6 million in Canada.

While such ‘Canadian’ commercial fare is key to boosting the domestic box-office take, according to Holt, over the last three years, publicly funded domestic films are also becoming increasingly focused on generating audiences.

Holt points to upcoming homegrown ‘audience pleasers,’ such as the new Atom Egoyan film Where the Truth Lies, Sturla Gunnarsson’s Beowulf & Grendel, Terry Gillian’s Canada/U.K. copro Tideland, and The Journals of Knud Rasmussen, a new film from Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner director Zacharias Kunuk.

The Department of Canadian Heritage has already begun its review of the FFP, while a separate review, including but not limited to the FPP, is underway at the Heritage parliamentary committee.

-www.telefilm.gc.ca