Canadian cinema box office sets new record

Canadians spent $1.01 billion at the cinema in 2009, setting a new record for box office receipts, according to data from the Motion Picture Theatre Associations of Canada.

Blockbusters such as Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince boosted the box office, mirroring the trend in the U.S., where 2009 theatre receipts set a new record.

But Canadian films continue to be the poor cousins, earning only three per cent of the total box office — about $26 million in all of 2009.

Among the top-grossing Canadian films were Emile Gaudreault's De père en flic, Mike Clattenburg's Trailer Park Boys and Michael McGowan's One Week.  De père en flic, the cop comedy that topped the Quebec box office, brought in $10.5 million.

The top-grossing movies in Canada:

• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, $34.4 million.
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, $31.5 million.
• The Twilight Saga: New Moon, $28 million.

James Cameron's Avatar opened too late in the year to be among the top earners, but still brought in $27 million in Canada over the Christmas break.