Alliance Films is banking on the cult following of the first installment of the Harold & Kumar comedy franchise to beef up audience presence for the sequel, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, which bows wide in theaters Friday alongside Universal’s Baby Mama.

The original, Harold & Kumar Go to Whitecastle, had an ‘adequate theatrical life,’ but has become a favorite on DVD, according to Alliance VP of theatrical sales Rob McKenzie.

Whitecastle generated $2.3 million at the domestic box office and is ‘one of Alliance’s top-selling catalogue titles,’ says McKenzie. ‘That’s the reason for the sequel — because the DVD was so strong.’

McKenzie says the company expects Guantanamo Bay will have a ‘much larger gross.’

The comedy marks the return of John Cho and Kal Penn as the quirky pot-smoking duo who find themselves in trouble with Homeland Security after they attempt to board a plane to Amsterdam. New Line distributes in the U.S.

McKenzie is not concerned about the competition, noting that Mama, starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, former partners on Saturday Night Live‘s ‘Weekend Update’, skews toward a female audience, while Harold & Kumar is targeted at the younger male demographic.

‘Comedies always do well,’ he adds, pointing to cheaper production costs for the genre. Harold & Kumar is rated 14A, while Mama has a friendlier PG rating in Ontario.

Alliance re-released an ‘extreme, unrated, remastered’ edition of Whitecastle in March to promote the theatrical release of the sequel. ‘We were very pleased with the sales,’ McKenzie says.

The distributor is also exclusively opening Tom McCarthy’s dramedy The Visitor on six screens in cities including Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Edmonton, with plans to expand to Ottawa on May 2.

Visitor will face competition in art houses from TVA Films’ Then She Found Me, the directorial debut of Helen Hunt, which bows on three screens in Toronto and Vancouver, while it expands to Montreal next week.

After its recent screening at Toronto’s Hot Docs film festival, the documentary The Forgotten Woman, exec produced by Deepa Mehta, bows on two screens in Toronto and Vancouver via Mongrel Media. Directed by Mehta’s brother Dilip Mehta, Woman follows an eight-year-old widowed bride sent to live at a secluded religious retreat, and is a thematic follow-up to Deepa Mehta’s acclaimed drama Water.

Also opening in limited release is Montreal filmmaker Helene Klodawsky’s Family Motel, produced by the National Film Board and Instinct Films, about a Somali family who lives at a motel for homeless families after they’re evicted from their Ottawa apartment. It is distributed by Filmoption International.