Big-name releases from Universal and Paramount Vantage will fill screens across Canada on Friday, though Alliance Atlantis managed to find spots for its horror thriller 1408.

The title from Dimension Films — which has John Cusack as a writer in a haunted hotel room — arrives in wide release alongside Paramount Vantage’s A Mighty Heart and Universal’s Evan Almighty, the most expensive comedy ever made at US$175 million, with Steve Carell as a modern-day Noah. Mighty Heart stars Angelina Jolie as the wife of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was abducted and killed in Pakistan in 2002. It will be carried in Quebec by Incendo Media, following its recent deal to handle English and French releases of the Paramount offshoot.

1408 will play on some 140 screens, according to AA. The distributor is also releasing the love story Eagle vs. Shark on one screen each in Toronto and Vancouver, looking to expand into Montreal next week.

Both titles were originally scheduled for different dates, but were shuffled to June 22. The New Zealand-made Eagle vs. Shark is carried in the U.S. by Miramax.

This week also sees the limited releases of the release of 1977’s Killer of Sheep, via Mongrel Media, and the girls soccer story Gracie, from TVA Films.

AA has other significant titles in line for the coming weeks. It will carry the Toronto-shot Hairspray on July 20, followed by the comedy sequel Rush Hour 3 on Aug. 10.