TORONTO, ON – The Network of Independent Canadian Exhibitors (NICE) today released Market Access Barriers: What informs Ontario’s independent cinemas’ decisions to play Canadian and Ontarian films, a study supported by Ontario Creates through the Business Intelligence Program.
For seven weeks in February and March 2026, 16 independent cinemas across Ontario recorded every title they played and every decision they made about each Canadian film released in that period.
“It’s asked like an evergreen mystery in Canada: Why don’t Canadian films perform better in our own cinemas, to our own audiences?” says Sonya Yokota William, founder and director of the Network of Independent Canadian Exhibitors (NICE). “The Market Access Barriers report is the first time that anyone has taken a data-driven approach to quantifying what informs independent cinemas’ decisions to book Canadian films.”
“Ontario’s independent cinemas are a vital part of our screen ecosystem and an important pathway for Canadian films to reach audiences,” said Karen Thorne-Stone, President & CEO of Ontario Creates. “Ontario Creates was pleased to support this research which identifies barriers and recommends practical strategies to increase the number of domestic films on independent screens and to connect audiences with more compelling Canadian content.”
Why now, and why independent cinemas?
In February of this year, Telefilm Canada reported that Canadian films took 1.7% of the country’s box office in 2025, down 41% from the year before. The Market Access Barriers report brings a new lens to the data: in 2025, independent cinemas held only 16% of Canada’s total box office, but they earned 60% of the box office for Canadian films. Thirty-five of the films earned 100% of their box office at independent cinemas.
“When talking about the prospects of Canadian film in Canadian cinemas, we are largely talking about what informs the decision-making of independent cinemas,” says Yokota William.
The importance of independent cinemas is being recognized globally. On September 7, 2026, film leaders from around the world converged on Paris, France, to take part in the Lumière Summit. One of the key projects that emerged was the International Resilience Initiative for Independent Screens (IRIS): “At the very moment audiences are rediscovering independent film, the ecosystem that brings it to them is weakening. Unlike film production, which can to some extent relocate, independent distribution and exhibition depend on locally rooted institutions,” say the prepared materials from the summit.
Structural issues
Titles from major studios will often command full shows: the requirement for an exhibitor to play one title in every available show slot on a screen for the duration of its run. The study found that a cinema operating without full-show commitments booked Canadian titles at 4x the rate of one operating mostly under them.
“We found that the demands of mostly US studios to take up every single showtime by requiring ‘full shows’ has all but wiped some screens off the market for Canadian films,” says Yokota William. “This is especially impactful for small-town, single-screen cinemas that have no choice but to say no to a Canadian film if they have brought the latest blockbuster to their community.”
In many regions across Canada, the distribution of films is limited by ‘zones’, geographic exclusivity arrangements that usually privilege the biggest player.
“To a lesser extent, we also saw some independent cinemas not able to access Canadian films on release due to ‘zones,’” continues Yokota William. “While zones do not often directly move the needle on Canadian films, the practice itself is routinely discriminatory against the independent cinemas. Canada should leave zones in the past, and catch up to other countries, where the average moviegoer has more choice in where to see a new movie.”
The Market Access Barriers report suggests that Canada could benefit from a mechanism to adjudicate on film access disputes, modelled on France’s Médiateur du cinéma or Australia’s independent Conciliator.
Awareness gap
Of the 238 Canadian booking decisions recorded, the cinema had heard of the film in only 115, fewer than half.
Where a distributor made contact about a Canadian title, 32% of decisions ended in a booking. Where no contact was made, only 5% of decisions did; in those cases, the exhibitor heard about the film separately and approached the distributor.
“The most easily bridged gap revealed through this study was the awareness gap,” says Yokota William. “Many of the solutions are already oft-cited: longer lead times, more consistent communication, earlier circulation of trailers and marketing assets, and so on. We know opening dates of Marvel movies years in advance; Canadian films with much smaller marketing budgets should not be left with twice the work of awareness-raising, in shorter periods of time.”
Better and more consistent communication is key. Understanding that not all distributors have relationships with all exhibitors, the Canadian Movie Marketplace canadianmovies.ca, owned and operated by NICE, is suggested as a central home for all Canadian releases. The online database of Canadian titles available for theatrical booking has extensive search and filter functions, along with a release calendar and built-in chatbot to support film discovery.
The full report, with data tables, is available at: http://nicecinema.ca/access-report
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About the Network of Independent Canadian Exhibitors (NICE)
The Network of Independent Canadian Exhibitors (NICE) is an alliance of Canadian independent exhibitors offering curated film programming to public audiences. NICE acts as an industry body on behalf of and in the interest of Canadian independent film exhibitors, and facilitates a network for information and resource sharing. nicecinema.ca
For more information, beautiful NICE venue photography and interview opportunities, contact Sonya Yokota William sonya@nicecinema.ca.