Despite its weaker-than-expected debut, Fido nonetheless took the top spot at last week’s box office among Canadian-made films — earning more than $163,000 for TVA Films and knocking Ma fille mon ange down to number two, with $131,000 for Alliance Atlantis Vivafilm.

The rankings for the week starting March 16 saw the comedy Nos Voisins Dhantsu drop to number three, followed by Congorama, another release from Christal, at the number four spot. The Seville Pictures history piece Partition, which after seven weeks has made $306,000, was number five.

TVA put $2 million into promoting Fido — hefty considering its box office to date — but Yves Dion, the distrib’s president, told Playback Daily last week that he’s pleased with its performance so far, and remains optimistic that word of mouth will boost its take in the coming weeks. ‘The key cities have been doing really well,’ though the suburbs are soft, he says.

Among Hollywood and other foreign titles, the frame belonged to Warner Bros. and 300, which took in another $5.1 million in its second week, besting the new Sandra Bullock vehicle Premonition, which drew receipts of $2.1 million for Sony. Alliance Atlantis saw its Jim Carrey thriller The Number 23 slip to number seven, while the debut La vie en rose — the French biopic of singer Edith Piaf — took TVA to number eight with $479,000