Having been swiftly de-throned in South Africa, Harry Potter's reign at the box office has been truncated in another territory. Quebecois hockey comedy Les Boys III scored a gross of over C$1m ($635,000), the highest-ever opening for a local French-language film at the province's box office. Harry Potter A L'ecole Des Sorciers came in second with $529,000. Les Boys III's three-day total came from 121 screens, another record for the province.
Released by Montreal-based Christal Films, a joint venture formed by Lions Gate Films and former Lions Gate executive Christian Larouche earlier this year, the film is the third instalment in a money-spinning franchise produced by Richard Goudreau's Melenny Prods. The original Les Boys earned $3.9m in 1998 and the first sequel Les Boys II earned $3.65m in 1999; both were the highest-grossing Canadian films of their respective year of release.
Quebec, where the majority of the population speaks French, is a territory unto itself within Canada. Whereas English-Canadian films hold less than one percent of the nation's box office; in 2000, Quebecois films accounted for four per cent of the province's box office; in 1999, the figure was seven per cent, thanks mostly to Les Boys
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