Charles Biname’s historical saga Seraphin: Un homme et son peche set a modern box-office record for a Canadian film this year, pulling in $9.6 million (all results include taxes) since its release on 123 Quebec screens on Nov. 29, 2002.

Seraphin (produced by Cite-Amerique and distributed by Alliance Atlantis Vivafilm) pulled in approximately $5 million in calendar 2002.

The year has been nothing short of spectacular and certainly unmatched for Quebec movies at the box office, with the top four releases pulling in a cumulative gross of $28.2 million, almost double the ’02 take, when homegrown Quebec films netted close to $15 million for a 12% market share.

Playback’s annual box-office ranking of Canadian films is based on data supplied by the Motion Picture Theatre Associations of Canada and covers the reporting period from Nov. 8, 2002 to Nov. 6, 2003.

It has also been a record-breaking year for Montreal-based distrib Vivafilm, which along with Toronto-based sister companies Alliance Atlantis Motion Picture Dustribution and Odeon Films, account for nine of the year’s top-10 films.

Top producers are Lorraine Richard and Luc Martineau of Cite-Amerique for Seraphin; Denise Robert and Daniel Louis of Cinemaginaire with two of the year’s top four entries, Les Invasions barbares (The Barbarian Invasions in English) and Mambo Italiano; and Roger Frappier and Luc Vandal of Max Films with three among the year’s top-10 performers: La Grande seduction, Pere et fils and Comment ma mere accoucha de moi pendant sa menopause.

The period’s second top-grossing movie, and the highest-grossing Canadian film in calendar ’03, is director Jean-Francois Pouliot’s midsummer blockbuster comedy La Grande seduction (Max Films – AAV) with receipts of $7.6 million. Seraphin and Seduction (Seducing Dr. Lewis in English), now rank number one and two, respectively, on the all-time Quebec money list.

Third on the ’03 Canadian money chart is Denys Arcand’s Les Invasions barbares (Cinemaginaire and Pyramide Productions of France – AAV), which displaced Seraphin’s record launch total by opening on 136 screens May 9. Guy Gagnon, AAV president and CEO, pegs Invasions’ Quebec P&A investment in the order of $1.1 million. It earned $5.9 million prior to its Nov. 21 English Canada release.

Canada’s largest exhibitor, Famous Players, contributed $500,000 to Invasions’ marketing in the form of cash plus a huge trailer campaign on all of FP’s 838 screens.

Director Emile Gaudreault’s second feature, the coming-out comedy Mambo Italiano (Cinemaginaire – Equinoxe Films), took in about $600,000 on 129 screens in its first weekend outside of Quebec, and had earned $5.1 million as of early November nation-wide, placing it fourth in ’03. According to Equinoxe president Michael Mosca, Mambo now has a combined Canadian market P&A in the $3-million range, including major support from Telefilm Canada’s Distribution Fund.

Still in theaters, Eric Tessier’s supernatural thriller Sur le seuil (Go Films – AAV) ranks fifth in ’03 at $1.6 million and ranked number one in Quebec over its opening Oct. 3-5 weekend, when it pulled in $486,000 on 70 screens.

Helmer Louis Belanger’s second feature, Gaz Bar Blues, (Coop Video de Montreal/Les Productions 23/Film Tonic – AAV) earned opening-night honors at this year’s Montreal World Film Festival. It was launched in Quebec theaters on Sept. 5 and ranks sixth in ’03 with receipts of $760,500.

David Cronenberg’s artful thriller Spider, a high-profile competition entry at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, ranked seventh this year with receipts of $620,000.

Spider, a Canada/U.K. coproduction (Artists Independent Network/ CBL/Capitol Films/Catherine Bailey Ltd./Davis-Films/Grosvenor Park Productions – Metropolitan Films/ Odeon Films in Canada), opened Feb. 28. It drew $204,093 on 22 screens in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. After its second weekend in release on 35 North American screens (Sony Pictures Classics is the U.S. distrib), the film ranked 36th on Variety’s box-office chart with a total gross of over US$463,000.

In eighth place is Michel Boujenah’s Pere et fils (Max Films/A.J.O.Z. Films/Little Bear Productions/Gaumont – AAV), starring the legendary Philippe Noiret. It had ’03 receipts of $602,580.

Rounding out the year’s top-10 Canadian releases are Sebastien Rose’s social satire and feature film debut Comment ma mere (Max Films – AAV), ranked ninth in ’03 with a Quebec-only take of $500,000, followed by William Phillips’ second film, the action-caper Foolproof (Alliance Atlantis/Ego Films – Odeon Films), with over $440,000 at the box office as of Nov. 6. Foolproof had a reported P&A budget of close to $3 million, with big support from CHUM, Pizza Hut and FP, but failed to make the desired impact following an opening Oct. 3-5 weekend gross of about $230,000 on roughly 200 screens.

Internationally, Invasions had over 1.1 million admissions in theaters in France in its seventh week of release, according to distrib Pyramid. Admissions for Pere et fils in France, where it is distributed by Gaumont, were reported to be in the 1.2 million range, with Gaumont slated to release La Grande seduction in ’04. Internationally, IMDB.COM reports Spider did about E1.4 million in business in Italy (over $2 million) and about US$1.6 million in a limited release in the U.S.

Mambo Italiano, distributed in the U.S. by Samuel Goldwyn, had pulled in over US$1.1 million after opening on 50 screens on Sept. 19. The film, distributed in Australia and New Zealand by Icon Pictures, has already surpassed the A$1-million mark after opening on 113 screens Oct. 23.

-www.mptac.ca