Montreal: The new Pierre Falardeau film Elvis Gratton II – Miracle a Memphis opened on an unprecedented 91 screens across Quebec Thursday, July 1, and pulled in more than $1 million over the four-day holiday weekend.

Chantal Page, theatrical program director with distributor Films Lions Gate, says the weekend box-office tally was $990,931, with 15 screens still to report. The launch, the largest ever for a Quebec movie, includes 10 drive-ins, or ‘cine-parcs,’ says Page.

According to the distrib, Miracle a Memphis is the first French-language film in Quebec to score $1 million in its opening weekend.

The film, a somewhat crude, slapstick farce, is an undiluted rant against commercialism in the entertainment industry. Lead actor Julien Poulin plays Bob Gratton, a pro-federalist slob and former Elvis impersonator who returns from the grave to become a major international media star.

Miracle a Memphis is a coproduction between Bernadette Payeur of acpav, which produced Falardeau’s 1994 flq movie Octobre, and Christian Larouche of Films Cinepix, a Lions Gate production unit.

The distrib is also on a roll with the French box-office comedy Asterix et Obelix, which has garnered just over $1.4 million on 40 Quebec screens after four weeks.