Why don’t indie theatres show more Canadian films? Industry group blames studios, sort of

TORONTO – A group representing independent Canadian cinemas wants studios to drop an industry practice that it says is keeping small theatre operators from programming more domestic movies.

The Network of Independent Canadian Exhibitors says it’s time to rethink “full-show commitments,” which they say is when studios insist cinemas agree to use every time-slot on one screen to show a single film for a specific time period — in some instances as long as four weeks. While this may not be an issue for larger theatres, independent cinemas often only have one screen

According to NICE, whose members include 140 independent film exhibitors across Canada, the practice is most often used by studios behind buzzy blockbusters, making it hard for small theatres to program other films.

The commitments are just one of the reasons some independent theatres decide not to show some domestic movies, which also tend to have a harder time securing theatre bookings and generating attention because they’re less well-known. 

“What we find is Canadian films are routinely the films that miss out,” said Sonya Yokota William, NICE’s director.

The Motion Picture Association – Canada, which represents major film studios and film distributors including Disney, Netflix, Paramount, Prime Video & Amazon MGM Studios, Sony, Universal and Warner Bros. Discovery (HBO), did not respond to a request for comment.

A report NICE released Monday examined what might be preventing indie theatres from screening Canadian films, and what can be done about it.

It asked 16 Ontario cinemas about how often they encounter full-show commitments and found the practice was among the top three reasons given for why Canadian films weren’t programmed. 

In the 185 instances when those cinemas decided not to book a Canadian film between Feb. 6 and March 26, full-show commitments was cited as a factor in 44 decisions or about 23.8 per cent of the time.

A cinema with no full-show commitments booked Canadian titles at four times the rate of one operating mostly under them, the study also said. 

Some cinemas refuse full-show commitments because it doesn’t make sense for them to agree to dedicate one of their screens to a single film for several weeks, when they sometimes only have one theatre at their location. Others simply chose to program films that don’t come with the requirement, so they have more flexibility around what they show and when.

“You might think to yourself, oh well, these cinemas can just decide not to book these big films with full-show commitments, but the cinemas that we’re talking about are really the small-town cinemas… connecting their neighbourhood to the greater zeitgeist, to the big film that’s coming out,” Yokota William said. 

“And so it is very important for them also to be bringing in these films… but we also really think we need to create more room for Canadian films.”

The report NICE released dedicated a lot of space to discussing full-show commitments, but the practice wasn’t the most common reason why independent cinemas gave for not programming Canadian films. 

The top two reasons provided were that other films had more audience appeal, or the cinema’s programmers had not heard about the Canadian movie. Audience appeal was cited in 41.6 per cent of cases where a Canadian film wasn’t programmed, while a lack of awareness around specific movies was the reason given in 34.6 per cent of the cases, the report said.

“There are some cinemas that are so consistently committed to studio titles that they rarely pick up Canadian films, and then it kind of becomes maybe a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy,” Yokota Williams explained. 

At the same time, many distributors of domestic fare struggle to get the word out about their films. Many are working with small or non-existent marketing budgets and sometimes don’t do a good job of promoting their movies far enough in advance to give theatres ample time to program them, Yokota William said.

“I know the dates of Marvel movies coming out in 2028, so I would for that kind of overall awareness and that kind of strategy to be adopted for Canadian films, especially within Canada,” she said.

NICE’s report states independent cinemas delivered approximately 60 per cent of the total box office for Canadian films in 2025. The organization argues that if a domestic production doesn’t get screened at local theatres it often means the project makes less money, Yokota William said.  

Telefilm Canada revealed in February that domestic films generated box office revenue of $13.9 million in 2025, a decrease of more than 40 per cent from $23.5 million in 2024.

The Crown corporation, which is meant to help bolster demand for Canadian cinema, also found domestic films made up 1.7 per cent of the country’s box office revenue last year, down from 2.8 per cent in 2024.

The findings weren’t a surprise to Yokota William but “really gave us an even greater impetus to dig into” what was hampering the number of showings domestic films get, she said.

When NICE looked at the top performing films at the 16 cinemas it studied, historical drama “Hamnet,” animated science fiction comedy “Hoppers” and the 2026 Oscar-nominated short films, which often screen together, took the top three spots.

The highest Canadian entry was “Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie,” a Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol-led satire about a fictional band trying to book a gig at the Rivoli, a Toronto performance venue.

At the 16 cinemas that gave data to the independent exhibitors group, the film grossed $60,207. 

The only other Canadian entry to crack the top 10 was “Montreal, My Beautiful,” a love triangle drama centred on a Chinese-Canadian immigrant. It grossed $34,624 at the study’s cinemas.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2026.