For many Canadians, spring means the end of the regular hockey season and the beginning of the NHL playoffs. This year, with five out of six Canadian teams making it to the first round, hockey fever seems higher than usual, setting the stage for the release of a homegrown film set against the backdrop of the 1972 Canada-USSR hockey series.

Peter Wellington’s sophomore film Luck brought in $13,472 at the box office during the first two weeks following its March 26 limited release through Odeon Films. The Ontario-shot picture opened in four theaters, down to three by its second week. While the total numbers do not appear high, its per theater average is impressive – approximately $3,850, not far behind some of the highest-grossing films in the country, including The Blue Butterfly, which posted an average of $4,419 in its third week.

Per theater averages also point to big success for The Corporation, a 145-minute documentary released by Mongrel Media Jan. 16. With a total take of $803,249 as of April 1, The Corporation has consistently posted the highest per theater averages among all Canadian films for most of its 11 weeks on the big screen.

The theatrical success of the doc is even more impressive considering that Ontario audiences have had free access to it since co-commissioning broadcaster TVO began airing it in three one-hour segments on Feb. 25. Other broadcasters include Knowledge, SCN, Access and VisionTV, the first broadcaster to support the film. Vision shares first window with TVO and will be the first broadcaster to air the doc nationally after TVO’s six-month window in Ontario.

The Corporation’s averages range from $9,247 during the last week in February to $7,630 for the week ending April 1. Comparatively, Erik Canuel’s Le Dernier tunnel posted a per theater average of $5,628 from 66 theaters in the second week after its March 12 release by Montreal-based Christal Films.

In terms of total weekly takes, however, Le Dernier tunnel remains the top-grossing domestic film in the country, with box-office sales coming in at nearly $1.2 million as of April 1, the end of its third week in theaters.

An Oscar win followed by nine Genie nominations has helped prolong the theatrical success of Les Invasions barbares, which after 45 weeks on the big screen has grossed more than $7.2 million and continues to average over $2,000 from 19 theaters.

Fifteen weeks after its release, the Montreal-produced Oscar-nominated animated feature Les Triplettes de Belleville passed the million-dollar mark as of April 1, when it remained at 14 theaters.