Getting Canadian audiences into the theaters to see homegrown films is hard enough at the best of times, but asking them to choose a Canadian doc or drama over Hollywood horror-spoof Scary Movie 3, starring the big-budget bust of Pamela Anderson, on Halloween is a stretch.

The National Film Board doc The Last Round: Chuvalo vs. Ali struggled against more traditional Halloween fare on its opening weekend, but the NFB refused to release box-office figures. The Spanish/Canadian copro My Life Without Me, starring Sarah Polley, showed promise, bringing in $15,620 on only two screens. Both films opened on Halloween weekend. By comparison, Alliance Atlantis’ feature Foolproof opened Oct. 3 on 200 screens and brought in roughly $230,000. Foolproof’s box-office total as of Nov. 2 was $461,963.

The Gary Burns feature A Problem With Fear, released by Christal Films on one screen in English Canada Oct. 10, and another on Oct. 31, earned $9,063 as of Nov. 2. The film also opened on three screens in Quebec on Oct. 31, where its weekend box office totaled $806.

Meanwhile the breakaway Canadian hit Mambo Italiano, released by Quebec-based Equinoxe Films, continues to soar at the box office. After Halloween weekend the comedy feature exceeded $5 million at home and it has earned US$1 million since opening in the States on 50 screens Sept 19. After opening in Australia on 113 screens Oct. 23, Mambo has already passed the $1-million mark.

So what can the Canadian feature film industry take from the success of Mambo? Equinoxe VP Michael Mosca suggests that one area Canadians can compete in is comedy.

‘That’s how the Quebec industry really got started about 10 to 15 years ago, because we weren’t going anywhere either for awhile,’ says Mosca. Although English Canada has responded well to Mambo, some $3 million of its $5 million domestic total came from Quebec.

And recent Quebec box-office numbers (net, without taxes) are no exception. Sur le seuil, which opened Oct. 3, totaled $1.4 million as of Nov. 2. Gaz Bar Blues had a nine-week total of $679,000 and is still showing on 11 screens. And after 17 weeks in Quebec theaters, La grande seduction’s total box office was $6.6 million. The film is still showing on 10 screens.

According to Telefilm Canada, as of Oct. 23, Canadian films earned just over $29 million at the domestic box office in 2003, with $23.4 million of that coming from the French-language market and $5.7 million from the English market.