Thanks to piqued interest in the Rwandan genocide of the '90s, along with heavy media coverage of its release, Un dimanche à Kigali, the war movie/romance starring Quebec heavyweight Luc Picard, brought in $166,478 over the April 21-23 weekend, bringing its three-week total to $583,524.

"Obviously, we're extremely happy about the way in which Kigali has been received and embraced," says Michèle Laroche, director of theatrical distribution for Equinoxe Films. "People are talking about this film - there is a very good buzz about it. This is not a light comedy, so it's impressive the way people have been going to it."

The Robert Favreau-directed movie is playing only in Quebec, where it had a per-theater average of some $6,300 for the April 14-16 weekend, during which it took the number-one spot for Canadian-made films.

There is no date as yet for an English-Canada release, but Laroche says a screening at the Toronto International Film Festival and a possible fall release are being pondered. "We're crossing our fingers for other major festivals," she says.

The trick now, Laroche contends, might just be the weather: "If we have stunning weather on the weekend, forget it. People aren't going to want to go to a movie if it's beautiful outside."

Notably, the three top films on the North American box-office chart for the April 21-23 weekend were shot in Canada: Silent Hill (shot in southern Ontario, the Canada/France copro cleaned up at number one with US$20.2 million), followed by Scary Movie 4 (shot in Vancouver, it grossed US$17 million) and The Sentinel (shot in Toronto, bringing in US$14.65 million).

Thom Fitzgerald's HIV triptych, Three Needles, however, suffered a brutal weekend, pulling in only $374 at its one Toronto screen and $1,560 at its Vancouver screen. The film suffered some harsh reviews in Toronto, which distributor Seville Pictures feels may have hurt its draw.

"We got quite negative reviews in Toronto, aside from the Sun," says Ariane Giroux-Dallaire of Seville. "We're quite disappointed." Three Needles' take to date is $11,225.

Amnon Buchbinder's Whole New Thing, the dramedy starring ubiquitous thesp Daniel MacIvor, opened April 14 in Toronto and took in $3,198 at one screen, dropping 30% the following weekend to pull in $2,323. The cumulative box office, which includes earlier theatrical runs in Halifax and Vancouver, comes to $21,326.