Study on Moviegoing in Canada in 2024

Telefilm Canada and the Movie Theatre Association of Canada (MTAC) commissioned ERm Research to conduct a national study to explore the state of movie theatre attendance during 2024 in order to better understand the habits of Canadians and the appeal of watching movies in theatres.

In this study, ERm Research explores the habits and preferences of Canadian movie lovers. This is the last in a series of studies on Canadian movie buffs, the first of which was conducted in 2014, and then again in 2019. Whenever possible, comparisons were made to better understand changes in in-theatre film viewing and to make forecasts for 2025.

The online quantitative study was conducted from April 8 to 20, 2025 with 3,458 respondents and was followed by two discussion groups that brought together movie watchers with varying degrees of interest.  

Several highlights: 

• 62% of Canadians aged 13 and over attended a film screening in 2024, which is equivalent to 1.6 tickets purchased per capita.
• Ticket consumption per capita is about half of what it was in 2019 (3 tickets per capita), and down 2 tickets since 2014 (3.6 tickets per capita).
• Young people are the biggest ticket buyers: 85% of Canadians under 35 years of age went to the movies in 2024.
• Overall, Canadian movie buffs plan on going to the movies more often in 2025. Movie lovers from 18-34 years of age stand out and show the strongest intention of seeing more movies in theatres this year.
• Movie consumption is concentrated: Avid moviegoers, i.e. those who went to the movies at least 10 times during the year, represent 12% of Canadians and generate 49% of admissions.
• The genres that are most popular on the big screen are action flicks and horror films.
• The film industry generated more than $2 billion in additional spending on top of the box-office receipts: Moviegoers appreciate the amenities offered by theatres that make their outing more special.
• Light moviegoers indicate that longer exclusive theatrical release windows could encourage them to go to the movies more often.  
• Movie watchers no longer automatically consider films shown in theatres to be better. The perception that directly streamed titles are lower quality dropped by 30 percentage points between 2019 and 2024, from 50% to 20%.

The entire study is available here.