"It's really important, because Montreal is definitely a place where cinema and television companies want to come," Mayor Valérie Plante said at the announcement of the $76-million expansion.
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Québecor’s TVA Group, which owns MELS studios, is investing $76 million in a major expansion project to add a new building, MELS 4, to try to keep up with the rising demand for studio space in Montreal. The Quebec government is giving MELS a 10-year interest-free loan of $25 million to help finance the project.
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For the past couple of years, many in the industry have said the main issue cramping growth in the Montreal film production scene is the lack of available studio space. At a press conference Friday morning at MELS announcing the expansion, MELS president Martin Carrier said he has had to turn down many major films and TV series in recent years because there simply isn’t the required studio space. MELS is running at full capacity with a large number of projects, including Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, the latest instalment in the ultra-popular film series. It began shooting at MELS and around town in late spring and will continue shooting through early fall.
Also at the press conference were Québecor CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau, Quebec Economy Minister Eric Girard and Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante.
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“It’s really important, because Montreal is definitely a place where cinema and television companies want to come,” said Plante. “They love it. They love the environment. They love the ecosystem. We have so much talent. And (we have) the beauty, because we can cover the American scenery but also the European as well. So adding one studio is something that’s really important. I was on an economic mission (in Los Angeles) two years ago with the Bureau du cinéma et de la télévision du Québec, and the message we got was: ‘We love Montreal, we want to do more business there, but we need more (studio) space.’ ”
The MELS 4 building will cover 160,000 square feet, 60,000 of which will be devoted to the new studio. The rest of the space will house staging areas, workshops, production offices and other types of offices. Construction is expected to start this year, and the building will be open for business in the spring of 2023. When it’s completed, MELS will have 21 studios with over 500,000 square feet of production space.
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According to a report from the Bureau du cinéma released this year, the city lacks about 400,000 square feet of production space. The other major studio in Montreal is Grandé Studios; it announced in May that it also has expansion plans, expected to begin in the spring of 2022.
Foreign production is booming here in part thanks to the success of streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime, which are vastly increasing their volume of production each year. According to the Bureau du cinéma study, Netflix’s budget and expenses in 2017 amounted to $8.9 billion. By this year, that’s estimated to be $19 billion. The same study noted that overall film and TV production in Quebec totalled almost $2 billion in 2019.
“The trend is moving into television mainly and when we see that there’s TV shows coming in here, there’s going to be more and more potential seasons,” said Quebec film commissioner Chanelle Routhier. “So we definitely need that space. It’s like The Bold Type — they’ve done five seasons here. And we need more of those TV series, so therefore we need more studio capacity.
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“We’ve had to refuse shows. This has been going on for two years, and even more so post-pandemic. We’re definitely seeing a rise in content (production). So today is just a first step in the right direction.”
MELS boss Carrier said Hollywood studios and the streaming services have a voracious demand for studio space and will go to the cities that have the best space available.
“We at MELS and in Montreal have to position ourselves as even more of a destination for studios,” said Carrier. “We now think with this addition that we can go to two blockbusters a year that go in and out of the studios.”
Right now, MELS usually hosts one major blockbuster film per year.
Québecor’s TVA Group bought Vision Globale, which owned MELS, in 2014 for $118 million. On Friday, Péladeau said these production studios have become a key part of Québecor’s business.
“TVA has to integrate into a much bigger business (than just broadcasting), and one area is film and TV production,” said Péladeau. “TVA has always been a producer … so TVA is part of this ecosystem, and that’s how it’s going to assure its survival and be able to thrive in this new environment. You have to see these changes and new technologies not as a threat, but as a new opportunity.”
Blockbuster expansion will see MELS studios accommodate more film, TV production - Montreal Gazette
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