The Canadian film industry posted a modest theatrical performance in 2008, with box-office takings for Hollywood films at the local multiplex far outdistancing homegrown releases, according to year-end results from the Motion Picture Theatre Associations of Canada.

The MPTAC on Tuesday said Canadians spent $920.4 million last year, compared to $904 million in 2007.

Canadian films made up 3% of theater receipts with $26.7 million, with eight of the top-10 homegrown releases last year coming from Quebec. That compares with a Canadian market share of 3.4% in 2007, on $28 million in business.

Broken out, Québécois films last year pulled in a 2% share on $17 million in cinema takings, according to MPTAC, while English-language films grabbed 1% of the box-office pie on $8.8 million in receipts.

Canada’s two solitudes showed up at the box office, where Québécois releases did $16.6 million in business in the country’s French-language market, and accounted for only $271,347 in receipts in English Canada.

English-language films took in $8.18 million in receipts outside of Quebec, and did another $700,000 in business in French Canada.

What’s more, Paul Gross’ Passchendaele saved the day for the English-language film industry, as it did $4.4 million in business nationwide.

Far behind in tenth place among Canadian releases last year was Blindness, the Brazil/Canada/Japan coproduction that raked in $735,500 at the local multiplex.

The top-performing Quebec films last year included Cruising Bar 2 with $3.46 million in receipts, Babine with $2.23 million, and Dans une galaxie pres de chez vous 2 with $1.93 million in business.

The Canadian activity was dwarfed by Hollywood movies, led by blockbuster releases like The Dark Knight and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which accounted for $815 million in cinema takings last year, or an 89% share. That was up from a 2007 domestic box office for Tinseltown of $763 million in 2007, or 87% of the pie.

As in past years, Hollywood movies punched above their weight at the Canadian box office in 2008, as MPTAC noted 300 releases, or 48% of the films in domestic cinemas.

English Canada offered up 66 films, or 11% of the total, while Quebec contended with another 56 releases, or a 9% share.

The rest of the Canadian box office was made up of foreign indie releases, and French movies that unspooled in Quebec.