While CG dinosaurs and shape-shifting robots jockeyed for the top spot at the box office, a much smaller and quieter sci-fi import has launched to sky-high numbers at Mongrel Media.

Moon, the eerie story of a lunar-bound astronaut, made its Canuck debut through the Toronto distributor early this month, playing to a total of just under $78,000 according to data from the MPTAC.

Averaged over its four screens, that works out to some $19,400 each, the sort of number usually reserved for Hollywood’s tentpole attractions. Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs — the top film overall for the same week, ending July 9 — averaged roughly $19,800. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen took second place at just over $17,000. The weekly totals for each film were $6.4 million and $6.2 million, for Fox and Paramount, respectively.

Moon has since expanded, and will be on 13 screens this Friday in markets including in Montreal, Victoria and Calgary.

Despite the challenge posed by the 800-pound gorilla that is Transformers, the sci-fi film seems to have clicked with a ‘more discerning, underserved audience’ says Mongrel’s Tom Alexander.

Moon — the debut of director Duncan Jones, the son of musician David Bowie — has also been buoyed by positive review on both sides of the Atlantic.

‘It’s getting buzz, people are talking about,’ says Alexander, noting that the ‘mid-week numbers have been very strong’ which is unusual given the recent sunny weather in Toronto. ‘It’s definitely got legs.’

The film arrived one week after Mongrel released The Girlfriend Experience, the much-discussed Steven Soderbergh picture led by porn star Sasha Grey. Girlfriend arrived on one screen, pulling in roughly $24,000, but slipped following the addition of one screen in its second week, pocketing $8,000.

Girlfriend will continue to roll across markets through the summer, says Alexander. ‘It’s a challenging film,’ he concedes, more akin to Soderbergh’s earlier and more arthouse work like Sex, Lies and Videotape, ‘but it’s finding its audience.

The top-placed Canadian film for the week was De pere en flic, the Michel Cote-starring comedy from Alliance Vivafilm, which in just two days (it was released in Quebec on July 8) had racked up over half a million dollars.

It was followed by A Vos Marques… Party! 2, still going strong for E1/Seville after four weeks with cumulative receipts of $1.3 million.