The data included in this chart is from Jan. 1 to Dec. 26, 2019, MTAC’s final full week for 2019. 

Update: Released on Dec. 25, 2019, Merci pour tout earned just over $500,000 at the domestic box office in 2019, according to distributor Les Films Séville. As of Jan. 14, 2020, the film had over $1.1 million at the box office.

With another year done and dusted, Playback Daily is taking a look back at the top 10 Canadian and international films that drew audiences to the domestic box office in 2019.

On the Canadian side, Quebec-made films continued to dominate, with eight of the 10 films on this year’s list being produced out of la belle province.

The top four spots on the chart went to director Émile Gaudreault’s Menteur ($6.3 million, pictured), Louise Archambault’s Il pleuvait des oiseaux (“And the Birds Rained Down,” $1.8 million), Snowtime! sequel La Course des Tuques (“Racetime,” $2.64 million) and La femme de mon frère (“A Brother’s Love,” $753,757) from Monia Chokri. Other Quebec features like Matthias et Maxime ($547,212, #6), Telefilm Canada’s international Oscar pick Antigone ($408,926, #9) and Jeune Juliette ($296,393, #10) also made the list.

A trio of English-language films also broke through with The Grizzlies ($650,758) leading the charge at #5, followed by Paw Patrol: Ready Race Rescue ($508,402) at #7 and Quebec/Belgium copro The Hummingbird Project ($425,594) at #8.

This year also marked the second time La Course des Tuques has made the top-grossing Canadian film list. In 2018 the animated film, which made its debut on Dec. 7, landed at #8 on the list with $732,777 for the period of Dec. 29, 2017 to Dec. 20, 2018. All told, the film’s 2018 box office total came in at $1.3 million according to MTAC, while the film went on to earn an additional $1.33 million in 2019, leading to its combined total of close to $2.64 million.

To put 2019 into perspective, last year’s top-grossing Canadian feature was the final film in Ricardo Trogi’s trilogy, 1991 ($3.06 million). In comparison, 2017 saw sequels De père en flic 2 (#1) and Bon Cop Bad Cop 2 (#2) both break the $7 million mark. Both De père en flic 2 and Menteur were co-written by Gauldreault with writers Eric K. Boulianne and Sebastien Ravary. Additionally, no documentaries made 2019’s list, while 2018 saw Anthropocene: The Human Epoch come in at #9 with $401,083.

And on the international film front, superheroes and well-known IP continued to perform well with Canadian audiences.

Similar to 2018, the Avengers conquered with Avengers: Endgame netting $84.2 million this year. Previously, Avengers: Infinity War made $62.1 million at the domestic box office in 2018. The Lion King and Captain Marvel came in at #2 and #3, earning $49.8 million and $42.3 million respectively. And Joker, which sees Bron Creative’s Aaron L. Gilbert and Jason Cloth serve as executive producers, clocked in at #4 with $39.1 million.

Image of Menteur courtesy of Bertrand Calmeau