Maybe Their Movies Don’t Suck

Hollywood may be having a rough year, but the French Canadian film industry is raking in the dough. “While box-office receipts across the continent were down more than 8 per cent in the first half of 2005 compared with a year earlier, they fell less than 3 per cent in Canada’s French-speaking heartland. There’s nothing bewitching about the trend. While this year’s crop of Hollywood films is leaving Quebeckers just as indifferent as other North Americans, homegrown movies continue to build their audience, making the province’s film industry the envy of its English-Canadian counterpart.”