‘They’re not going to say, `I’m not opening Broken Arrow this week because I’m opening Margaret’s Museum.’ That will never, ever happen in this country. Ever.’

It’s funny that Tony Cianciotta, vp and gm of Alliance Releasing, should choose Margaret’s Museum to illustrate the status of Canadian film in Canadian theaters. The feature has been bandied about at length as an example of the relative success a domestic film can have here. And although most people agree that Margaret’s Museum had the necessary mixture of broad appeal, promotion (helped along by $50,000 from Famous Players’ Exhibition Marketing Fund), and good theater placement, no one’s predicting the beginning of a trend.

Cianciotta calls it and a few other select films ‘sparks’ in an otherwise discouraging landscape.

Looking at the big picture, Dan Lyon, vp of distribution at Astral, says he’d have to agree. ‘A lot of Canadian pictures end up being four-walled. Essentially, the exhibitors don’t consider that they have sufficient appeal to give them traditional releases. But it’s like anything else; when the distributors have a picture with good commercial potential, we get very good co-operation from the exhibitors.’

According to both distributors and exhibitors, the bottom line is the bottom line. While there’s an inclination on the exhibitors’ behalf to support homegrown product, money matters only permit them to go so far.

‘From an exhibitor’s perspective, we really don’t care what country a particular film is from,’ says Howard Lichtman, executive vp of marketing and communications for Cineplex Odeon. ‘If our patrons want to see it, we’ll want to put it on our screens. And we know very quickly, because people vote with their feet and their wallet.

‘The reality is, generally we are extra-lenient when it comes to a Canadian film. Generally it will stay in our theaters longer than it might otherwise.’

At Famous Players, vp of marketing Roger Harris also believes creating a want-to-see is the issue. ‘We’ve always been anxious to show Canadian product, and we’ve done what we can to work with the distributors to do that, but at the end of the day, the life of the film and demand for the film dictates how wide it plays and for how long.’

Outside of Quebec, where, according to Allegro’s executive vp of distribution Andre Paquette, the audience for domestic film is ‘most definitely growing,’ there’s no prevailing opinion as to whether lack of promotion or content are the major barriers in creating that crucial want-to-see.

Cineplex’s Lichtman says ‘it’s 80% content, 20% promotion,’ while Alliance’s Cianciotta believes more dollars spent on promotion are needed to counter the mega-promotions of the American majors.

‘Films come into Canada spending $2.5 million to $3 million on promotion. That’s the whole production budget for us, let alone marketing. Ideally, we’d spend $2 million to make the movie and $2 million to market it, but we don’t have the resources to do both.’

On their end, the exhibitors have been eager to demonstrate their commitment to the cause through Canadian Project Pictures – an initiative forged between the Motion Picture Theatre Associations of Canada and the Canadian Association of Film Distributors and Exporters.

The idea is that distributors will propose pictures to the exhibitors, who will then choose one film on which to focus their attentions. Once chosen, participating exhibitors will run trailers and feature in-theater promotion for the film, whether or not it’s playing on their circuit.

Dina Lebo, executive director of the mptac, says the project shows an unprecedented level of co-operation between competing exhibitors. ‘They’re working together to promote films which aren’t necessarily theirs, basically helping draw moviegoers into a competing theater to see a Canadian film. This is all new.’

The first project picture is Norstar’s Salt Water Moose, which opened April 19 in southern Ontario. While the feature’s playing on Famous Players screens, Cineplex has donated trailer time and promotional space in its theaters. Cineplex’s Lichtman says, ‘It’s a delightful film and I think we should be proud of it.’

And while all distributors echo the sentiments of Astral’s Lyon in saying they’re ‘delighted’ with the co-operation of the exhibitors on the project, it’s clear that the criteria for selection may knock out some of the films which could use the exposure most. ‘Accessibility’ and ‘wide appeal’ are the buzz words from both exhibitors and distributors.

Lebo says no long-term, concrete goals have been set out for the program, which is still in its infancy, but she hopes lessons learned from Salt Water Moose and the first foray into exhibitor co-operation will strengthen the program for the next selected picture, probably in early fall.

At Norstar, vp Andy Myers says the experience on Salt Water has been a positive one – ‘The exhibitors have been incredibly co-operative’ – but numbers still have to be tallied on whether or not the project managed to boost box office numbers for the film. Other distributors are already optimistic, however, and most hope to have a suitable film of their own to submit next time round.