Québec, September 4, 2024. – In 2023, movie theatre attendance amounted to 14.6 million in Québec. While theatre attendance was up 29% from 2022, it was still 22% lower than in 2019, the last pre-pandemic year. The factors behind this decrease include a lower number of screenings, which has not returned to pre-pandemic levels (-13% from 2019), fewer active movie theatres (down to 93 from 96), and changes in movie viewing habits. These statistics come from the publication La fréquentation des cinémas en 2023 by the Observatoire de la culture et des communications of the Institut de la statistique du Québec.
Attendance and number of screenings in Québec movie theatres, 2014 to 2023
Source
Institut de la statistique du Québec, Observatoire de la culture et des communications du Québec.
Number of screenings and new releases up in 2023
In 2023, there were 827,272 film screenings and 537 new movies released in theatres, up 12% and 11%, respectively, from 2022. These increases were partly due to movie theatres being open throughout the year for the first time since 2019. However, these figures remain below 2019 levels, by 13% for screenings and 8% for new releases.
Québec films performed well
The market share of Québec films among all movie theatre admissions stood at 12% in Québec in 2023, a good performance in relation to foreign films. This share was 9% in 2022 and 8% in 2019.
Québec film Le temps d’un été directed by Louise Archambault ranked 16th at the 2023 box office. Four other Québec films ranked in the top 30: Testament (No. 22), Les hommes de ma mère (No. 23), Katak, le brave béluga (No. 24), and Ru (No. 27).
With this box office performance, Québec films totalled 1.8 million admissions in 2023, up 76% from 2022 (1 million) and 19% from 2019 (1.5 million).
These results come from the Film Screening Survey, which is conducted every year by the Observatoire de la culture et des communications of the Institut de la statistique du Québec.
View the full publication (PDF, 564,99 Ko) (in French only)
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