February 22, 2023
SHARE
COMMONS
Monopoly #15 – Movie Monster
“I love the smell of monopoly in the morning”
Arshy Mann
Host & Producer
Jordan Cornish
Producer
Noor Azrieh
Producer

“I love the smell of monopoly in the morning”

“Forget it, Jake, it’s Cineplex”

“The competition commissioner once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti”

“Life is like a box of anti-competitive cinema chains that allegedly use their 75% market share to bully their competition, limit consumer choice and charge obscene junk fees. You never know what you’re going to get.”

 

Featured in this episode: Barry Hertz (Globe and Mail), Corinne Lea, Andy Willick, Sonya William

 

To learn more:

“Cineplex’s distribution deal with Lionsgate sends ripples through Canadian film industry” by Barry Hertz in The Globe and Mail

“Independent cinemas accuse Cineplex of shutting them out of market for top films” by Maryse Zeidler in CBC News

“Indie theatres say they’re last in line for movies because of Cineplex” by Joseph Pugh in CBC News

“Cineplex’s monopolization” by Vass Bednar in Regs to Riches

Additional music from Audio Network

Sponsors: Douglas, Free Lunch 

If you value this podcast, Support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody.

You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music—included with Prime.

More from this series
This isn’t just history. It’s prophecy. It’s a vision of what may come if we continue to ignore the ecological limits of this planet in the pursuit of profit.
April 24, 2024
The story of Westray is one of managerial malice and the heroism of everyday people. But why is it that governments let this happen over and over again, at the expense of so many lives?
April 17, 2024
It’s a story of racism and labour exploitation that goes back decades, even centuries. And it’s a prophecy of what is to come — that the hardships inflicted on migrant farm workers are only a trial run for the rest of us. 
April 10, 2024
To understand why the situation remains so bad, we need to go back in time to a moment when there was progress and hope. A moment when it looked like things might truly change for the better.
April 3, 2024
Across Canada, emergency rooms have been shutting down, leaving desperate people in the lurch. And at the heart of this health care crisis, is a labour crisis.
March 27, 2024
The rise of gig work and temp agencies have made employment more precarious than ever
March 20, 2024
This season of COMMONS will dig into the fascinating history and ever-changing present of what it means to be a worker in Canada.
March 6, 2024
In this bonus episode, COMMONS producer Noor Azrieh sits down with Peter Smith to discuss his reporting on right-wing conspiracy groups like Qanon and Romana Didulo.
February 7, 2024
all podcasts arrow All Podcasts
COMMONS