Following a tremendous opening weekend for Michael Moore’s health-care documentary Sicko, Alliance Atlantis is expanding the film from 55 to 80 screens across the country on Friday. Sicko rang up $810,000 during its first six days in theaters, for a per-screen average of $14,700, putting it on par with such recent hits as Knocked Up and Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer.

‘It’s fantastic for a 55-theater release of a documentary,’ Alliance VP of theatrical sales Rob McKenzie tells Playback Daily, noting that films such as Moore’s Fahrenheit 911 and March of the Penguins raised the bar for documentaries.

‘With Bowling for Columbine we also had some very large numbers, but on a much smaller number of screens, so it’s a bit hard to compare,’ he adds.

Sicko, in which Moore sets out to expose the poor state of America’s medical system, also earned US$4.5 million over its opening weekend on 441 screens south of the border.

Meanwhile, the Canadian documentary Manufacturing Dissent, which takes a behind-the-scenes look at the controversial Moore, will not expand beyond its three screens in Quebec on Friday. The film, which opened one week prior to Sicko on June 22, performed below expectations for Mongrel Media and its Quebec partner Métropole Films Distribution. Mongrel will open Dissent in English Canada on July 13 in Vancouver, and July 20 in Toronto.

‘We’re keeping the run going… we’re opening different markets in Canada and have different dates lined up throughout July and August,’ says Mongrel director of theatrical releasing Tom Alexander. ‘We’ll see how we go from there.’

New releases for Friday include the comedy thriller You Kill Me, which opens on four screens in Toronto and one screen each in Vancouver and Montreal via Odeon Films. The film, which was partly shot in Winnipeg, stars Ben Kingsley as an alcoholic hit man.

Among U.S. releases are director Michael Bay’s special effects-laden Transformers, playing its first weekend for Paramount Pictures, and the Robin Williams comedy License to Wed from Warner Bros.