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Toronto's Culture Production Boom

Northern Light

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A thread to join the Tech Boom thread in light of recent announcements.

First we had the expansion of Pinewood a while back.

Very recently the Movieland Studio announcement for Markham.

Now, CBS television is getting their very own production facility (O&O) in Mississauga.

These new facilities are not small and will add multiple sound stages including some of the largest in the world.

http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-pinewood-toronto-film-20180712-story.html

https://www.thestar.com/business/2018/09/11/massive-movie-complex-planned-for-markham.html

https://www.thestar.com/business/20...-in-canada-to-satisfy-demands-of-peak-tv.html

The scale of this expansion, if justified, and it seems to be with Toronto turning away productions for lack of space will grow our industry by leaps and bounds.
 
Wonder how the city's FX industry is doing as well- it must be doing pretty decently with the amount of filming in the city.


The Portlands masterplan creates a studio district in Toronto, with a considerable amount of land left aside for studios and production services- there's sort of an increasing concentration of the filming industry within this area, as well as a dispersion into the suburbs as well.

https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2017/pg/bgrd/backgroundfile-107836.pdf (pg 96)

Will be very interesting seeing how the area will grow (and how fast it might) once the flood mitigation and infrastructure is in.
 
Some interesting factoids:
Foreign location and service production increased (in BC) 31.5 per cent, to $3.04-billion, in fiscal 2017-18 from the previous year, putting the province far out in front of second-place Ontario, which saw an increase of 3.2 per cent, to $910-million.
British Columbia now accounts for 40 per cent of Canadian film and television production, followed by Ontario at 32 per cent and Quebec with 20 per cent, according to the study, entitled Profile 2018.
In B.C., the industry accounts for 71,140 direct and spin-off jobs – up about 11,000 jobs from the previous year – compared with 51,580 in Ontario and 44,910 in Quebec, according to the study
Forty-five per cent of Canadian TV production is done in Ontario and 28 per cent in Quebec, while only 16 per cent is done in B.C. The province ranks third, at 4 per cent, in Canadian theatrical feature-film production. Ontario is first, at 48 per cent, and Quebec is second, at 45 per cent.
 
A lot of potential to boost the foreign production component ( versus domestic) in Toronto with all the new developments in the pipeline; however, if you are measuring against overall economic activity auto assembly alone ( not including parts or support industries) is about a 21 billion dollar industry in Ontario to provide reference. Meaning one car plant is bigger than the entire film and Televison industry in BC or Ontario.

Also if you look at the economic output to jobs ratio from that article you only get about $42,000 per worker based on those numbers. That would suggest that film and television is a pretty low productivity service industry.
 
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Not Toronto per se (Hamilton) but certainly our region.............yet another new studio complex en route!


Proponent is Aeon Studio Group (ASG)

The location is the City of Hamilton owned (to be sold to the studio group) Barton-Tiffany lands. This where the 'waterfront' football stadium had been pitched, and roughly next to the GO stn down there.

From the article:

The plan is to build the "Hamilton Studio District," which is being pitched as a "live-work-play development" that will include a production campus, studios for post-production, animation and visual effects, a crew training facility, office buildings and more.
......

Residential and retail space is also planned for the development, with two residential towers and "public open space that is pedestrian oriented," ASG said in its announcement.

Robbie David, one of the co-founders of ASG, said the plan is to have a "purpose-built" studio in place by next summer. It could be five to 20 years before the project is at "full completion," he said.
 
Is a Universal Studios Toronto theme park possible? just thinking of Universal Studios theme park connection to the original Hollywood studios in California.
 
Not Toronto per se (Hamilton) but certainly our region.............yet another new studio complex en route!


Proponent is Aeon Studio Group (ASG)

The location is the City of Hamilton owned (to be sold to the studio group) Barton-Tiffany lands. This where the 'waterfront' football stadium had been pitched, and roughly next to the GO stn down there.

From the article:

The plan is to build the "Hamilton Studio District," which is being pitched as a "live-work-play development" that will include a production campus, studios for post-production, animation and visual effects, a crew training facility, office buildings and more.
......

Residential and retail space is also planned for the development, with two residential towers and "public open space that is pedestrian oriented," ASG said in its announcement.

Robbie David, one of the co-founders of ASG, said the plan is to have a "purpose-built" studio in place by next summer. It could be five to 20 years before the project is at "full completion," he said.

Awesome to see The Hammer get a new studio. A lot of films have shot there, including The Shape of Water and Spotlight. I'm suspicious about just how "pedestrian friendly" it will be, considering that security gates, hanger-sized buildings and parking lots are usually necessary for film studios.
 
Is a Universal Studios Toronto theme park possible? just thinking of Universal Studios theme park connection to the original Hollywood studios in California.
Yes. Just have Universal purchase Marineland and rename it Universal Studios Niagara. It's much easier, since the longtime owner of the former is deceased and is having financial issues (mainly due to animal abuse).

It also has approximately a thousand acres to play with and is located close to a major tourist attraction and an international airport (and would help revitalize the economies of Niagara Falls (both sides), St. Catherines, Fort Erie, and Buffalo). Oh, and it's reasonably close to Toronto (and with a brand like Universal Studios, it can compete with Canada's Wonderland and Cedar Point much better; Fantasy Island can carve its own niche).
 
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An Universal Studios would definitely work (especially in Niagara Falls which has a Toronto + Buffalo immediate catchment zone), but it would be a significant amount of investment for what essentially is a seasonal park (considering that it has to compete with Florida and airfares are fairly cheap), and there are juicier fruits in Asia to pick first.

I would say that all the right things would need to line up for this to happen.
 
An Universal Studios would definitely work (especially in Niagara Falls which has a Toronto + Buffalo immediate catchment zone), but it would be a significant amount of investment for what essentially is a seasonal park (considering that it has to compete with Florida and airfares are fairly cheap), and there are juicier fruits in Asia to pick first.

I would say that all the right things would need to line up for this to happen.
HSR between Toronto (either Union or Summerhill) and NYC (either Penn or Grand Central) would be a must for Universal Studios Niagara to be reality. It would allow New Yorkers to make a reasonable day trip to Universal Studios Niagara.
 
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One of America's top media companies just launched a 260,000-square-foot production centre right outside of Toronto in the City of Mississauga.

CBS Stages Canada, as the state-of-the-art production facility has been named, makes CBS the first-ever major U.S. networks to open a branded production entity in Canada.

 
Netflix, Toronto Film Fest Partner to Develop Local Movie Talent

8:17 AM PST 11/5/2019 by Etan Vlessing

 

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