Montreal: david Cronenberg’s virtual game-playing thriller eXistenZ grossed $570,000 on 175 screens in its first four days, with distributor Alliance Atlantis Releasing projecting an opening week tally of $800,000. The three-day April 23-25 weekend take in Canada was $525,000.

In the u.s., Dimension Films, a division of Miramax Films, released eXistenZ on 80 screens in the top 40 markets and had four-day box office receipts of us$309,000 ($456,000).

The film ranked second in Quebec on about 50 screens over the weekend, edged out only by The Matrix with $184,000 in receipts, according to Alex Films. In Canada, eXistenZ’s per screen average is a healthy $4,971.

Based primarily on the movie’s presales and the Canadian tax credits, eXistenZ’s revenues already exceed the $31 million cost of production.

The movie’s producer, Serendipity Point Films president Robert Lantos, says the opening weekend results in Canada and the u.s. are not comparable.

Miramax is releasing eXistenZ as ‘an art-film on a platform basis, a very narrow release pattern with no television backing,’ says Lantos. ‘In Canada, it’s being released as a mainstream movie. The u.s. is in for the long haul. In Canada it’s going much faster.’

The three-day u.s. take was us$278,000 ($410,283).

Tops in France

Released April 14 by ugc-ph, eXistenZ topped the box office in France in its first week, dueling with Mel Gibson’s Pay Back. The film had with 265,000 admissions in its first week and 412,197 admissions as of April 28. At a cost of $10 a ticket, Lantos says the box office in France ‘is the equivalent of $4 million to date.’

‘The film was very well launched in France,’ he says. ‘Cronenberg is an extremely important filmmaker there and [the release] happened to coincide with him being named president of the jury [of the Cannes International Film Festival, May 12-23], which obviously in France carries extra weight.’

The aar release in the u.k. was April 30.

Revenues exceed cost

The $31-million eXistenZ ‘was financed, as Crash was, by Alliance writing a cheque equal to the budget,’ says Lantos. ‘Sales began well before production of the film and continued through production and still continue now. But as of this date, and prior to the film’s release, the combination of the worldwide sales and the Canadian tax credits have resulted in the film’s revenues exceeding costs. Alliance wrote the cheque and is now collecting from everybody else.’

Presales include Kinowelt in Germany, ugc-ph in France, Gaga in Japan, Cecchi-Gori in Italy and Dimension (Miramax) in the u.s.

Felicia’s Journey

Atom Egoyan’s Felicia’s Journey has been selected for official competition at Cannes. According to Lantos, the film is ‘magnificent.’

Felicia’s Journey stars Elaine Cassidy and Bob Hoskins and is a coproduction between aac and Icon. Lantos is the film’s coproducer.

Serendipity, Montreal’s Cinemaginaire and France’s Cine b are currently shooting Denys Arcand’s 15 Moments. In tv, Serendipity is gearing up on the second season (13 hours) of the ctv drama Power Play. Six hours of the cbc drama series Cover Me, shot last year, air this fall.

A prominent member of the Feature Film Advisory Council, Lantos says he intends to back off somewhat from his role as an industry activist and instead focus his attention on Serendipity’s feature film production and development slate. In addition to the Arcand film, there will be ‘a maximum of one more’ feature from Serendipity in ’99, he says.