Third-largest film production centre in North America
Toronto Media & Entertainment
Toronto has been a major film and TV production centre since the late 1970s — and, separately, the launchpad for some of the most influential music of the streaming era.
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Toronto has carried the nickname "Hollywood North" since the late 1970s — and unlike a lot of city nicknames, this one is backed by genuinely large numbers.
A production centre since the 1970s
By 1979, Toronto's mayor was already announcing that Canada had become the third-largest movie production centre in North America, after Los Angeles and New York. The city is home to Pinewood Toronto Studios, Canada's largest film studio, and in 2023 alone, film and TV production contributed roughly $3.15 billion to Ontario's economy and close to 46,000 direct and spin-off jobs.
Why Toronto works for film and TV
Competitive tax incentives, a deep pool of skilled crew, and a downtown that can plausibly stand in for New York, Chicago or a generic American city on camera — all of which is exactly why so many productions shoot in Toronto without ever setting the story there.
Music: from a hip-hop and R&B hub to global reach
Toronto's Caribbean-rooted hip-hop scene — the same cultural current documented throughout the slang in this dictionary — produced an outsized share of 2010s-2020s global pop and R&B, led most visibly by Drake's OVO label and The Weeknd. TIFF (see our festivals guide) and the wider music/film ecosystem reinforce each other; a lot of the same city infrastructure supports both.
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