Two years after it entered the market via an acquisition of Quebec’s Seville Pictures, E1 Entertainment has augmented its place on the Canadian distribution scene in 2009, a landmark year that saw the company increase box-office revenues by 74% in Canada.

Canada’s number two feature film distributor also saw a 718% increase in the U.K., where it is now the second-largest independent distributor, in addition to a 46% climb in the Netherlands. Box-office revenues in Canada rose from $32 million in 2008 to $56 million last year.

A significant contributor to its success was New Moon, the second film in the profitable Twilight franchise.

While the Toronto distributor would like to have more New Moons, it doesn’t rely on blockbuster movies as part of its business plan, according to Patrice Théroux, who says E1 is focused on having a diverse portfolio that includes specialized, foreign-language and Canadian feature film titles.

‘We are fortunate to have the Twilight [franchise], but you can’t really count on that because the independent distributor rarely has access to these blockbuster movies. They’re very rare,’ says Théroux, president of filmed entertainment at E1.

Théroux is pleased with E1’s ‘aggressive growth’ in 2009, but is not fixated on becoming the country’s top Canadian distributor.

‘It’s a badge you wear with pride when you get there, but profitability is number one. Being number two, and having a steady volume of releases and being profitable is completely satisfactory,’ he adds.

Films on E1’s 2010 slate include Vincenzo Natali’s Splice; Atom Egoyan’s Chloe; Eclipse, the third film in the Twilight franchise; and the Robert Pattinson-starrer Remember Me.