Two Hollywood heavyweights will duke it out at the weekend box office, though the scale will likely tip in favor of Jim Carrey in Disney’s A Christmas Carol, while Maple Pictures competes with the George Clooney-starrer The Men Who Stare at Goats.

Goats, which recently bowed at the Toronto International Film Festival, arrives on 223 screens in Canada amid a strong marketing push — and will play on 2,200 screens across North America via Overture Films, according to Box Office Mojo.

John Bain, SVP of acquisitions and distribution at Maple, says company execs believed in the film the moment they read the script.

‘It was one of the funniest I had come across in a long time,’ Bain tells Playback Daily, adding that buzz has been circulating post-TIFF. ‘We’re seeing exceptionally strong tracking numbers, especially against the male 25+ audience. We’re confident that our aggressive P&A will translate into a very healthy box office.’

The film is about a unit in the U.S. Army that uses paranormal powers in its missions, and also stars Ewan McGregor and Kevin Spacey.

It’s a busy week for Maple, which also has the Alaska-set sci-fi thriller The Fourth Kind, starring Milla Jovovich, opening on 161 screens. The film bows on nearly 2,500 screens in the U.S. through Universal.

Disney is pushing the first of the holiday releases, with the family-themed Christmas Carol playing on 3,500 screens.

Also in theaters on Friday:

• The documentary Inside Hana’s Suitcase — based on the bestselling book about holocaust victim Hana Brady — gets a modest release through Alliance Films, which is opening the doc at Toronto’s Sheppard Grande and Cumberland theaters. It will move to Vancouver next week, followed by Montreal on Nov. 20.

• KinoSmith Films has the doc When We Were Boys, about an elite private boys school, playing an exclusive engagement at Toronto’s Royal Cinema. The film, from Canuck filmmaker Sarah Goodman, bowed at Toronto’s Hot Docs Festival earlier this year.

• Warner Bros. bows the Cameron Diaz-starrer The Box on 2,500 screens in North America.