Record-breaking box office trends, not to mention the 3D epic Avatar, are lighting a fire under Cineplex Galaxy Income Fund.

Cineplex CEO Ellis Jacob tells Playback Daily that the recent Christmas to New Year’s Day break was his company’s busiest week ever, with many of its 130 theaters bursting at the seams with cinema-goers.

Surging attendance and resulting concession sales also helped Cineplex Galaxy post its ‘best year ever’ in 2009.

Fourth-quarter earnings to Dec. 31 popped 37% to $9.5 million, against a profit of $6.9 million in 2008, on revenue up 17% to $247.2 million, against a year-earlier $211.4 million.

Avatar was on Cineplex screens for only 13 days in December, and yet was its biggest box office performer during the last financial quarter, thanks to a 3D ticket up-charge.

Other fourth-quarter performers included the vampire flick New Moon from distributor E1 Entertainment and the disaster pic 2012.

Despite the economic downturn, around 17.1 million Canadians went to the local cinema in the last quarter of 2009, up 12.3% from 15.2 million during the same period of 2008.

Net income for the year was $53.4 million, up more than 84% from 2008.

And a record 70 million Canadians went to the movies in 2009, up 10% from 63.5 million a year earlier — with many coming in search of ‘affordable escapism,’ says Jacob.

That said, the $3 up-charge for 3D titles cuts both ways for Cineplex. It enabled the chain to post a 4.1% increase in per-patron revenue but, at the same time, Cineplex has to split the 3D ticket premium with a film’s distributor and the digital technology provider, either Imax or RealD, which slightly reduced the return on Avatar 3D, for example.

‘That results in a lower margin, even though you’re getting an additional revenue’ from the 3D up-charge, Jacob explains.

Still, the benefits of considerably higher attendance at his theaters and greater frequency of visits from 3D titles like Avata will only grow for Cineplex as it adds still more digital 3D projection systems, the company said.