Film and video: Over $14 billion in revenues in Canada in 2024
Revenues increased by 47% since 2015
Today’s post is the last of six related to macroeconomic indicators in 2024 for culture, the arts, and components of the arts, such as the visual arts, the performing arts, as well as books, and sound recording.
The article provides key macroeconomic indicators for film and video in 2024 and examines trends since 2015. The analysis includes three key economic indicators:
Output (aka total revenues)
Direct impact on Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
Jobs
The analysis is based on Canada-wide statistics from Statistics Canada’s National Culture Indicators for 2024. In the 2024 dataset, film and video saw a notable (upward) revision of prior estimates for 2021 through 2023. Of note, the decrease in 2023 (presumably due to strikes by American actors and writers) was much lower than previously estimated. Because of the revisions, my analysis today is not directly comparable to a similar analysis last year.
To add depth and context, I analyze the historical estimates of revenues and GDP in three ways: 1) as published by Statistics Canada (“nominal” statistics); 2) adjusted for inflation (“real changes”); and 3) adjusted for both inflation and population growth (“real per capita changes”).
What’s included in and excluded from film and video?
The estimates relate to film and video products, i.e., the production of film-related goods and services from cultural organizations and industries as well as non-cultural ones. Film and video is a subdomain in Statistics Canada’s dataset, and it sits within the domain of “audio-visual and interactive media”. Related subdomains such as broadcasting and interactive media are excluded from the statistics in today’s article.
As is the case with every other grouping within the arts, two broad categories are excluded from the statistics:
Support organizations, government funding, and all government-owned venues, all of which are included in the very broad category of “governance, funding, and professional support”
Education and training in film and video
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.
Timeframe: 2015 to 2024
Unlike my other articles, the trend series in this article starts in 2015. Statistics Canada notes in a footnote to the dataset 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, in my article on the overall cultural sector and the arts as a whole, I did include estimates for 2012 through 2014 for film and video, because they are the best estimates that we have for those years.
The data sources and other notes are at the end of this article.
Over $14 billion in revenues for film and video products in 2024, a 47% increase from 2015
Total revenues for film and video products were $14.3 billion in 2024, accounting for the largest proportion of revenues (38%) in my admittedly imperfect measurement of the arts.
Film and video revenues increased by 47% between 2015 ($9.7 billion) and 2024 ($14.3 billion), before adjusting for inflation or population growth.
The following graph depicts three indexed measurements of total revenues (nominal, inflation-adjusted, and adjusted for both inflation and population growth). Each index starts at 100 in 2015.
The blue line (the index of the nominal estimates) increased significantly through 2019 (index value of 132), followed by a significant drop in 2020. Revenue increases in 2021 and 2022 resulted in a peak value of 156 in 2022. Film and video revenues have decreased somewhat since then, with the index residing at 147 in both 2023 and 2024.