Oliver Stone and his take on George W. Bush took a back seat to Paul Gross over the weekend, as Passchendaele edged out W. for the number two spot at the domestic box office. The war story did well for Alliance Films over its opening weekend, ringing in over $900,000 and placing second on the overall chart behind the Toronto-shot actioner Max Payne from 20th Century Fox.

It’s good news for Alliance, which reportedly injected $2 million into marketing for Passchendaele, the costliest Canuck movie ever to be financed entirely at home. The $20-million First World War drama from writer/actor/director Paul Gross opened on 202 screens with a per-screen average around $4,500, besting the $3,000 opening-weekend average of Blindness, also from Alliance and also involving producer Rhombus Media. Passchendaele‘s other producers include Gross’ Whizbang Films and Damberger Film and Cattle Company.

Alliance executive managing director Michael Rudnitsky tells Playback Daily the film performed especially well in smaller towns, while business was brisk in Alberta — Gross’ native province and the film’s main shooting location.

‘We’re very happy… we have solid exit polls from people who saw the movie, so we’re hoping word of mouth will make the picture hold up very well,’ he says, adding its performance is ‘definitely in line with our expectations.’

‘In fact, it did probably a little bit higher than expected,’ Rudnitsky adds. Passchendaele will hold all its screens going into its second week.

Max Payne, starring Mark Wahlberg, grossed $18 million in North America, according to Box Office Mojo. The week’s other wide release, Maple Pictures’ W., generated $700,000 on 152 screens in Canada — its per-screen average on par with that of Passchendaele.

Payne, and to a lesser degree Passchendaele, faces competition this week from male-targeted cop drama Pride and Glory, from Alliance, and Maple’s horror sequel Saw V.