Film, television and digital production in Toronto hits record-breaking $2 billion in 2016

From a media release:

Domestic and foreign film, television, digital and commercials production investments in Toronto had a third record-setting year in 2016 and achieved the $2.01-billion level for the first time.

Some of the major highlights for 2016:
• Domestic and international screen-based productions exceeded the $1-billion mark for the sixth consecutive year, with a 33-per-cent increase over the $1.55 billion reported in 2015.
• Foreign major production investment in film and television grew to $794 million, a 49-per-cent increase from 2015. Since 2014, foreign production investment has increased by 129 per cent.
• Investment in animation and visual effects grew to $403 million, a 179-per-cent increase from the $144.5 million reported in 2015. Since 2014, investment in this area has increased by 363 per cent from $87.1 million.
• Television series, foreign and domestic, remains the dominant investment type in Toronto with an increase to $908 million in 2016.
• Investment in commercials production continued to rise to record levels, growing to $380 million, a 10-per-cent increase from the $345 million reported in 2015. Since 2014, investment in this area has increased by 95 per cent from $195 million. (Note that this type of investment is measured by Toronto but not by other levels of government.)
• The number of location filming shoot days has seen three record breaking years, with an increase to 7,280 shoot days in 2016.

The above numbers also help to show a larger Toronto industry success story. Combining the $2 billion in investment noted above with figures from broadcasters and the interactive digital media cluster results in a total investment figure of $3.26 billion for all of Toronto’s film, television and digital media production in 2016. That figure represents a 16 per cent increase from 2015.

The detailed report can be found here.