The competition was no match for a team of space explorers led by Captain Patenaude, as the family comedy Dans une galaxie près de chez vous 2 made off with more than half a million dollars in its opening weekend for TVA Films.

The sci-fi sequel, which began as a TV show and was first adapted for the big screen in 2004, opened on 123 Quebec screens on April 18, and went on to earn more money in the province over three days than new U.S. titles including the Judd Apatow comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall and the Al Pacino-starrer 88 Minutes.

Galaxie had made more than $700,000 by week’s end on April 24, good for top spot among Canuck films at the box office, while placing sixth among all films. Numbers for its second weekend in theaters were not available at press time.

Directed by Philippe Gagnon, Galaxie follows the latest mission of the crew of the starship Romano Fafard, and stars Claude Legault (Tout est parfait), Sylvie Moreau (A vos marques…Party!) and Guy Jodoin (Rumeurs). It is produced by Diane England of Montreal-based Zone3.

Emotional Arithmetic, the other new Canadian release for the week, generated $24,785 on eight screens for Seville — coming in at a distant second place on the domestic chart.

Arithmetic is followed by the KinoSmith Films documentary Up the Yangtze, with a total of $466,736 after 13 weeks in theaters. The large-format French doc Dinosaures 3D: Les géants de la Patagonie is holding on to fourth place after 42 weeks in theaters, with a total box-office take of $831,000. The film added another $6,500 last week.

Rounding out the top five among domestic films is Alliance Vivafilm’s boxing drama La ligne brisée, with $885,000 after seven weeks in theaters.