Montreal: Canadian and Canadian-coproduced movies have to be content sharing 10% or less of the theatrical market with other foreign films in France and the U.K., while the lion’s share of the box office continues to go to Hollywood and domestically produced films. However, a number of Canadian films performed reasonably well in Europe last year.

Patrice Leconte’s $25-million Canada/France feature La Veuve de St-Pierre, shot in Nova Scotia and coproduced by Montreal’s Cinemaginaire, placed in the top 10% at the French box office last year, ranking 54 with 648,676 admissions. In ’99, two sci-fi films – Vincenzo Natali’s Cube and David Cronenberg’s eXistenZ, with 913,773 and 621,733 admissions, respectively – ranked in the top 10%, beating out all other Canadian movie entries.

In the U.K., recently deceased producer Nicolas Clermont produced the year’s two top Canadian movies – Christian Duguay’s The Art of War, which ranked 129 (out of a total of 320 theatrical releases) with receipts of £372,353 (about $828,000), followed by the Canada/U.K. coproduction Eye of the Beholder, which ranked 155 with £192,687 ($430,000) in earnings.

Istvan Szabo’s Sunshine ranked 158 in the U.K. with earnings of close to £187,000 ($416,000), followed by Carl Schultz’s Kenyan adventure To Walk With Lions with close to £10,000 ($22,000).

The France/U.K. year-end box-office summary is published in the April 5 issue of Zoom International, and is prepared by Telefilm Canada’s European office in Paris from data sourced from Le Film Francais, a French trade paper.

Other Canadian movies attracting French audiences last year included Atom Egoyan’s Felicia’s Journey, ranking 173 (out of a total of 607 theatrical releases) with 96,602 admissions, followed by Philippe Gautier’s Indian elephant adventure Hathi (Productions La Fete), ranking 241 with more than 40,300 entries. The Canada/Germany/Hungary coproduction Sunshine had close to 30,000 admissions.

An animation short program featuring several National Film Board shorts reported just over 30,000 admissions (the equivalent of about $265,000).

Films drawing between 5,000 and 14,000 admissions included Jeremy Podeswa’s The Five Senses and Denis Villeneuve’s Un 32 aout sur terre. Zoom points out any first or second film from a relatively unknown foreign director with 10,000 entries or more can be qualified as a success. Both films finished in the 11,000 to 12,000 admissions range.

Other rankings include the Canada/U.K. coproduction Le Coupable, 13,894 admissions; Denys Arcand’s Stardom, 9,263 admissions; Top of the Food Chain, more than 6,170 admissions; and the animated Canada/Germany coproduction sequel Heavy Metal F.A.K.K., placing 423 with 5,481 admissions.

French films captured about 35% of the French box office last year, but have seen their market share surge 25% early this year to more than 45%. British films captured 18.8% market share in the U.K. last year, an increase of more than 25% over 1999. *