After all the claims about Canada as a movie piracy haven and the threats about delaying the release of films, the MPA has issued a confidential report that casts Canada in a much different light. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the annual MPA report on all-media sales shows Canada as having the biggest growth of the top 25 countries tracked by the association. Hollywood revenues from Canada grew by $341 million last year, a 23 percent increase. Not only was Canada number one for dollar growth, it was number two for revenues (trailing only the UK) and number three in percentage growth (behind only Russia and Belgium). In fact, Canadian revenue growth far surpassed the U.S., which itself saw a strong 10 percent increase in revenue. This is the emergency situation that required legislation that leapfrogged other priorities with minimal debate and no committee hearings?
Canada Ranked as Hollywood’s Fastest Growing Market
Tags: camcording / copyrightMovie Camcording / film / hollwood / movie piracy / Movie PiracyCopyright Microsite - Copyright VideoCopyright Microsite - Canadian Copyright / mpaa
7 Comments
Recent Posts
Skillful Negotiation or Legislative Fail? Taking Stock of the Bill C-18 Deal With Google 
Salvaging Bill C-18: Government Upends Legislation To Bring Google Onside the Online News Act 
Accountability and Antisemitism: The Canadian Heritage Committee Needs To Step Up 
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 186: Andy Kaplan-Myrth on the CRTC’s Last Ditch Attempt to Fix Canada’s Internet Competition Problem 
On Media Bailouts and Bias: Why Government Media Policy Is Undermining Public Trust
Sad though it may be, this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who follows the copyright issues.
Just a thought – is that $341 American dollars? If so, couldn’t the enormous jump in the dollar account for what seems like a spike in revenue?
Of course, then there is the new claim that by the MPAA that copyright investigation and law enforcement should trump all others such as burglary and bankrobbery, since those result in less “losses”. Clearly, the MPAA lawyers get the best crack, so what is their issue?
[ link ]
Response to Nav
Nav,
Interesting thought, but I don’t think the data bears it out. According to the Bank of Canada website, the Canadian dollar closed 2005 at 0.8577. It closed 2006 at 0.8581 – virtually unchanged. Over the course of the year, the dollar did track higher, to an average of 0.8790. Two cents on the dollar would only account for a fairly small part of the increase.
MG
Correction
Correction there Michael. Canada was the second fastest according to the report. The fastest was Russia at a 50% increase. 🙂
Nevermind
Sorry, misread the posting. Disregard my first comment.
First being among the fastest growing digital download markets in the world and now this. One wonders if the MPA report release was delayed until a “profound” and “effective” anti-camcording Canadian legislation was enacted.
Interestingly enough, the two other nations who have recently enacted or are about to enact similar camcording laws are at +6% (Mexico) and -13% (Japan) growth in revenue. The 6 countries that are in the double digit percentage growth, besides Canada, do not have such legislation (AFAIK).