Montreal: Distrib Alliance Atlantis Vivafilm reports the Charles Biname historical adaptation Seraphin – Un homme et son peche has set an opening week record for a Quebec film at the box office with receipts of $1.6 million. The film opened on 123 screens, ranking number one over the Nov. 29 to Dec. 1 weekend and bringing in just over $1 million, or 34% of the total take. Over the Dec. 6-8 weekend, Seraphin, still in top spot, pulled in an additional $787,000 for an opening 10-day take of $2.4 million.

Seraphin is adapted from the classic Claude-Henri Gagnon novel by screenwriters Pierre Billon and Biname and produced on a budget of $5.7 million by production house Cite-Amerique. The film stars Pierre Lebeau as the cruel miser Seraphin, Karine Vanasse as his unhappy wife Donalda and Roy Dupuis as her lover, Alexis.

A second major holiday release, Christal Films Distribution’s Les Dangereux, opened to poor results despite a major P&A effort with box-office receipts of $192,000 for the Dec. 6-8 weekend. The film, widely panned by the press, is a black action-comedy about a kidnapped rock star. Leads include prominent Quebec TV personalities Veronique Cloutier and Stephane Rousseau. The film opened on 85 screens with a P&A budget of approximately $800,000, according to Christal Films. Dangereux, produced on a budget of over $7 million, is the latest from the Les Boys production tandem of director Louis Saia and producer Melenny Productions.

Christal reports the blockbuster French fantasy Asterix et Obelix: Mission Cleopatre completed its fall ’02 run in Quebec theatres with total earnings of $3.8 million.