After only three weeks in theatres, Camping Sauvage was already the highest grossing Canadian film of the year, and by Aug. 6 its cumulative box office sat at $3.5 million. Backed by more than $1 million in P&A, the Alliance Atlantis Vivafilm release hit 100 Quebec screens on its July 9 release and was still playing on 68 when Playback went to press.

According to Patrick Roy, senior VP acquisitions and sales for Vivafilm, the film has performed better than expected.

‘We hoped to gross between $2 and $3 million, and we’re already over $3.5 million, so we’re more than pleased with the results,’ says Roy, adding that Vivafilm expects the film to gross between $4.2 and $4.3 million over its Quebec run.

The feature comedy is directed by Sylvain Roy, Andre Ducharme and Guy A. Lepage, one of Quebec’s most popular actors who also stars alongside Sylvie Moreau (Catherine). Produced by Lyla Films and Cine-Roman, the $5.5 million comedy is about an upright citizen, played by Lepage, who goes camping to escape trouble with a biker gang.

Meanwhile, in English Canada, Touch of Pink, released by Toronto-based Mongrel Media, remains one of the top five grossing Canadian films, as it has been since its July 16 opening on nine screens – six in Toronto and three in Vancouver.

As of Aug. 6, its cumulative box office take sat at over $217,000, with an impressive per-screen average of $7,285 for the week starting July 30, when the film was showing at nine theatres. By comparison, Camping Sauvage’s per screen average for the same week was $6,271, but was as high as $15,000 during opening week.

‘With this film we went a little bit wider on the release than we normally do,’ says Tom Alexander, manager of theatrical sales and distribution at Mongrel, explaining that although he hoped Touch of Pink would have done slightly better at the box office than it has, Mongrel is still very pleased with its performance.

Compared to other English Canada feature releases, Touch of Pink has fared very well, especially, according to Alexander, when you consider that audiences have remained comparatively consistent since its release.

‘One of the key things we notice when we look at the numbers is the week-to-week dropoff of the big summer platform releases, which tend to be around 40% to 60%,’ says Alexander. ‘For Touch of Pink they’ve been much gentler, at around 20% or 30%, so it has held up very well.’

As of Aug. 6 Touch of Pink was playing at six theatres – three in Toronto and one in each of Vancouver, Victoria and Calgary. According to Alexander, the film will be rolled out to additional major markets over the next two months. Tentative release dates include Halifax on Aug. 27 and Montreal on Sept. 10, with additional releases in smaller and regional markets expected over the next two months.

Touch of Pink is a UK/Canada copro from Toronto-based Sienna Films. The cast includes Kyle MacLachlan and Jimi Mistry (East is East). Mistry plays a gay South Asian whose mother has decided it’s time for him to get married – to a woman. Jennifer Kawaja and Julia Sereny of Sienna produce with Martin Pope of the U.K.’s Martin Pope Productions.