Mongrel Media president Hussain Amarshi is upbeat about the box-office potential of the Canuck dance drama How She Move, opening Friday in 35 theaters across Canada, and on 1,500 U.S. screens through Paramount Vantage.

‘There’s been films of this nature like Stomp the Yard that opened in this timeframe and did really well,’ he tells Playback Daily, referring to last year’s Sony dance feature that raked in nearly US$22 million in its Jan. 12 opening weekend. It went on to make $61 million in theaters in North America.

Amarshi says while the film’s younger-skewing audience is back at school, there’s not much else to do in the cold weather.

‘This is definitely a good escape movie…it has summery colors, high energy, and the dance sequences are awesome,’ he adds.

The Toronto-shot How She Move, from director Ian Iqbal Rashid (Touch of Pink), stars newcomer Rutina Wesley as a high school student forced to return to her troubled Jane-Finch neighborhood where she rekindles a passion for step dancing. The film, produced by Sienna Films, was scooped up by Vantage, the specialty film division of Paramount Pictures, at last year’s Sundance Film Festival for a reported US$4 million.

Though he would not disclose Mongrel’s marketing budget, Amarshi says more than 60% was spent on electronic media including TV, radio and Internet spots, in keeping with the younger demographic. Mongrel’s ‘medium’ campaign is supported by a substantial campaign from Vantage, he adds.

‘I can already see they’ve spent a lot of money, especially on the Internet campaign…it’s out on some major sites with a huge amount of hits…it’s being promoted quite widely on that front,’ he says.

How She Move arrives alongside the counter-programmed Rambo, starring Sylvester Stallone, which will bow on 259 screens through Maple Pictures. The film will debut in 2,800 theaters in the U.S., where it is handled by Lionsgate, and may well take the number one spot at the box office, despite the poor early reviews.

How She Move, on the other hand, has earned positive reviews, and drew favorable comparisons to Stomp the Yard in Variety.

The weekend will also see the release of Quebec helmer Richard Jutras’ drama La belle empoisonneuse, opening on 17 screens throughout the province via Christal Films. Meanwhile, the Vancouver-shot supernatural thriller They Wait, directed by Ernie Barbarash (American Psycho), will debut on one screen each in Toronto and Montreal through TVA Films.

Foreign fare including the Dutch dark comedy Waiter, handled here by Seville Pictures, and the Chinese drama Still Life, distributed by Mongrel, will get exclusive screenings in Toronto.

How She Move and Rambo will face competition from other wide U.S. releases including the Columbia thriller Untraceable, starring Diane Lane, and the zany Fox comedy Meet the Spartans.