Odeon Films is taking its chances with the long weekend, expanding its comedy Balls of Fury to all major and small markets across the country, where it will play opposite Rob Zombie’s Halloween and the thriller Death Sentence, from 20th Century Fox.

Fury, which opened day and date with the U.S. two days prior, gets an additional 239 screens on Friday, bumping its count to 353. It’s handled by Rogue Pictures south of the border.

Mark Slone, SVP of Odeon Films, admits that the Labor Day weekend is often a hard one for movies, but he’s confident that the comedy, about the world of underground ping-pong, will perform. Fury stars Christopher Walken, Dan Fogler and George Lopez.

‘If there’s less competition, it does carve out an opportunity for one last fun end-of-summer thing to do,’ Slone tells Playback Daily, noting the film’s PG rating opens up a ‘whole other layer of audience’ compared to Halloween, which carries a 14A rating in Ontario and most other provinces.

The horror remake is handled by Odeon sister Alliance Atlantis, which will be renamed Alliance Films following completion of the CanWest buyout, says Slone.

Slone, who remarks the summer has been ‘incredible’ for business, says Alliance has some strong titles up its sleeve for the winter months, including the fantasy adventure The Golden Compass, starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, and the war drama Atonement, both bowing in December.

Meanwhile, Odeon is cautiously releasing the homegrown comedy Greg & Gentillon, from writer/director Matthiew Klinck, on one screen each in Toronto and Vancouver Friday. The film opened in Quebec in April.

The French import Lady Chatterley, handled by Seville Pictures, will bow at Toronto’s Cumberland theater, in addition to opening on five screens in Quebec. It will expand to Vancouver and Ottawa next week.

Coming up, Maple Pictures is releasing the western 3:10 to Yuma, starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale on Sept. 7, while Alliance opens the Toronto-shot actioner Shoot ‘Em Up.