Phil the Alien, Rob Stefaniuk’s no-budget comedy about the misadventures of an extraterrestrial barfly in northern Ontario, had a respectable first week at the box office, raking in almost $13,000 from four screens.

Lions Gate picked up the film several days after its premiere in the Canada First! program at the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival, and released it March 11 on four screens. As of March 17, the sci-fi film had grossed $12,938, for an impressive per screen average of $3,235.

By comparison, CHUM’s Decoys, also a broad, sci-fi comedy, which was released at a similar time last year by the same distributor, had a per screen average of $2,796 at the end of its first week in theaters. Decoys hit 55 screens in February 2004. Phil’s opening-week average beat Decoys’ despite the fact that Decoys had a $5-million budget and a P&A budget of $850,000.

Like Phil, the TVA release Clean was also a buzz-maker at TIFF 2004. However, the feature from Olivier Assayas has not fared well since its March 4 release in English Canada. In the first week of its release, Clean grossed $7,260. In the second week, its gross increased slightly to $8,551 from five theaters, for a per screen average of $1,710. However, it was also released in Montreal theaters last October, where it grossed $81,943 over 14 weeks.

Gary Yates’ first feature Seven Times Lucky was released by Odeon Films on March 25. The Winnipeg-shot film was developed though the National Screen Institute – Canada’s Features First program. The film, starring Kevin Pollak (The Usual Suspects), gained considerable attention when it received positive reviews in Variety after its premiere at Sundance 2004.

Also from Odeon, Saint Ralph will be released April 11. As with Phil the Alien, the locally shot heart-warmer from Alliance Atlantis Communications and Amaze Film + Television premiered at TIFF 2004 in the Canada First! program. Other Canadian features set to hit theaters in April include Siblings from TVA and Le Survenant from Alliance Atlantis.