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By Steve Brearton
Illustration: Seth
Show me the money
The stage version of The Lord of the Rings in Toronto is estimated to have generated $600M in total
economic activity proving blockbusters have a big impact on local economies.
1 Visitors in millions who flocked to Halifax in 2000 to see a flotilla of
70 tall ships.
2 Amount of additional spending in millions of US dollars that travelers bound for
Vancouver’s Expo ’86 helped generate in Seattle. The World’s Fair increased spending in Vancouver by $4
billion.
5 Dollars in millions added to the Calgary economy in 1990 by the month-long
staging of the musical Les Misérables. Winnipeg calculated more than double the benefits for a similar run
the following year.
6.5 Tax dollars in millions generated in Ontario by the 1994 visit of the Barnes collection
of French paintings to the Art Gallery of Ontario. The exhibition attracted 600,000 visitors to Toronto.
25 Percentage decline for Toronto’s taxi cab companies during Pope John Paul II’s visit
in 1984. “It was one of the quietest weekends we’ve had this year,” said the manager of the Sheraton
Centre.
625 Number of jobs created for and to accommodate the demands of the 1991 Grey Cup game in
Winnipeg. The 16,000 visitors attending the game each spent an average of $580 on food and board and
shopping.
18,000 Number of concert-goers exceeding the population of Moncton, NB., when the town
held a Rolling Stones show in 2005. More than 80,000 fans mobbed the town that boasts 62,000 residents.
 100,000 Figure in dollars that one Toronto hotel manager said his business
would lose in revenue following the 1999 close of The Phantom of the Opera. Ticket sales for the show’s run
amounted to $465 million.
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