The Top 10 Canadian releases in the past 12 months have earned a total of more than $18 million at the domestic box office, according to new data from the Motion Picture Theatre Associations of Canada.

Director Louis Saia’s Les Boys III topped all Canadian films in the home theatrical market in 2002 with receipts of $5.3 million. The results point to a third Golden Reel and another Bobine d’Or (the Prix Jutra award for biggest box office in Quebec) for the hockey comedy franchise, Christal Films Distibution and producer Richard Goudreau of Melenny Productions, Montreal.

Les Boys III dislodged Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone as the number-one film in Quebec over the Nov. 30 to Dec. 3, 2001 weekend with record receipts of $1,045,435. Christal opened the film on 121 screens with the support of a $600,000 P&A campaign. The total theatrical take for the Les Boys franchise now stands at $17 million.

Still on the ice, Alliance Atlantis Motion Picture Distribution gave the curling comedy Men with Brooms, actor Paul Gross’ feature directorial debut, a national, red-carpet rollout with a P&A campaign of more than $1.5 million. Opening March 8 on 213 Canuck screens, MWB set a record for highest-grossing domestic opening for an English-Canadian film with weekend receipts of $1,040,000. U.S. trade paper Variety lists the film’s cumulative box office at $4,239,767.

L’Odyssee d’Alice Tremblay, a satirical fable from director Denise Filatrault, ranked third for the year with receipts of more than $2.1 million.

The year’s ‘happy surprises,’ according to Carole Boudreault of exhibition consultants Zoom Services, include: Richard Ciupka’s La mysterieuse Mademoiselle C., a children’s movie that pulled in $1.2 million despite half-fare ticket prices for kids; Moise: L’affaire Roch Theriault/Savage Messiah, an original TV movie released following an exhibitors’ test screening, earning $1.25 million in less than one month in Quebec theatres; and the low-budget road movie Quebec-Montreal, which transcended its ‘twentysomething’ demographic and has earned nearly $900,000 in the past three months.

Six of the Top 10 films are French-language Quebec productions.