Swimming with the sharks has worked out surprisingly well for Alliance Atlantis, which took $202,000 and the top spot at last week’s box office on the strength of Sharkwater. The eco-minded underwater doc by director Rob Stewart was the number one Canadian-made release for the week ending March 29 — holding off Ma fille, mon ange, which held steady at number two, and Fido, which fell to number three.

The 25-screen release of Sharkwater has been well-received by critics and the festival crowd. It played well at last year’s TIFF and, over the weekend, won best HD feature at the AFI Dallas International Film Festival, netting a US$10,000 prize for Stewart, who, in a recent statement, remarked that ‘the buzz around Sharkwater has been amazing.’

After six weeks in theaters, Ma fille continues to earn for Alliance Atlantis Vivafilm, grossing $64,800 for the frame, while Fido, down to 47 theaters in its second week, brought in another $64,200 for TVA Films, nudging its total take to $227,000.

Among U.S and other foreign titles, life imitated art as 300, like its stubborn Spartans, held on to the number one spot despite the arrival of five high-powered newcomers. Unlike in the U.S., where the Warner Bros. title lost its bragging rights to TMNT, another CG title from WB, 300 stayed on top in Canada, earning another $2.9 million for a per-screen average of $10,200.

The new arrivals, including Paramount’s Shooter and Sony’s Reign Over Me, met with mixed results. Shooter — with Mark Wahlberg as a sniper — took a close second place with $2.2 million, followed by TMNT, the latest installment in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, at number three with $2.1 million.

Sony’s seriocomic Reign Over Me, starring Don Cheadle and Adam Sandler, entered the chart at number six, followed by the family fantasy adventure The Last Mimzy, which earned $921,000 for Alliance Atlantis. Twentieth Century Fox followed at seventh place with the slasher sequel The Hills Have Eyes 2.

TVA Films continues to make coin with La vie en rose. The French biopic of singer Edith Piaf was the number 10 film overall in Canada last week, earning a healthy per-screen of $9,249 in its second week.