Cairo Time played well with the Thanksgiving crowds, generating $75,000 on 11 screens over the three-day weekend for distributor Mongrel Media.

The platform release saw the romantic drama from Toronto filmmaker Ruba Nadda open to a per-screen average of roughly $6,800, playing on 10 screens in Toronto and one in Montreal.

Mongrel president Hussain Amarshi says the number is in line with expectations, given a big push by the distributor that included posters on billboards and bus shelters, a September campaign with Air Canada, and trailers that have been airing since July. Cairo Time also premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

‘The Toronto buzz was already factored into our [marketing] plan. Where we were really happy was when the film won the best Canadian feature award… that was the bonus,’ Amarshi tells Playback Daily.

The film opened opposite the Vince Vaughn comedy Couples Retreat — which rang in US$34 million at the North America box office, according to Box Office Mojo — though Cairo Time is aimed at an older, decidedly more female audience. It stars Patricia Clarkson as a fortysomething woman who enters a brief love affair with an Arab man (Alexander Siddig) while on a trip to the Egyptian capital.

Cairo Time expands to Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Victoria and Halifax for a total of 17 screens in its second week. It faces competition from new releases including the Jamie Foxx actioner Law Abiding Citizen, from Alliance Films, and the family-aimed Where the Wild Things Are, from Warner Bros.