Revenues and economic impact of film and video in 2023
Part 4 of my macro-economic analysis of national data from 2015 to 2023
Today’s post continues my examination of macroeconomic indicators in culture, the arts, and components of the arts sector, which started with the visual arts and will conclude with the performing arts next week and books and sound recording in two weeks.
The focus today is on film and video, with key economic indicators in 2023 and trends since 2015.
Film and video is a subdomain in Statistics Canada’s dataset, and it sits within the domain of “Audio-visual and interactive media”. Other subdomains in this domain (i.e., broadcasting and interactive media) are excluded from the statistics in today’s post.
The 2011 Canadian Framework for Culture Statistics set out a description of film and video that is still followed:
This sub-domain includes the creation and production of feature films, short films, live action and animated films, television programs, documentaries, and videos in all formats including film, video, HD, digital, streamed and downloaded content, as well as dissemination services such as cinemas and film festivals.
My analysis includes three key economic indicators:
Output (essentially an estimate of total revenues)
Direct impact on Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
Jobs
I analyze the output and GDP statistics in three ways: 1) as published by Statistics Canada; 2) adjusted for inflation; and 3) adjusted for both inflation and population growth.
Unlike the data in my other posts, the trend series for film and video starts in 2015. Statistics Canada has noted that:
Improvements to the measurement of the Film and Video sub-domain were introduced starting with the 2015 reference year…. These improvements represent a statistical break in the Film and Video sub-domain and therefore estimates for 2015 forward should not be compared with historical estimates.
However, I have included earlier estimates for film and video within my posts on the arts and the overall cultural sector, because they are the best estimates that we have for 2012, 2013, and 2014.
The data sources and other notes are at the end of this article.
Over $11 billion in revenues in 2023
Total revenues in film and video were $11.3 billion in 2023. As I have noted previously, film and video represented 33% of all revenues in 2023 of my admittedly imperfect measurement of the arts. The percentage in 2023 was below the typical level of 36% or 37% between 2015 and 2022.
2023 was a difficult year for film and TV, with production activities deeply affected by the strikes by writers and actors in the U.S. How bad was it? Read on …