'Mommy' Becomes Highest Grossing Quebecois Film of 2014

Xavier Dolan and Anne Dorval on the set for Mommy.
Photo: Shayne Laverdière, courtesy Les Films Séville.

Here's some more good news for Mommy as awards season approaches: La presse reports that the Xavier Dolan film and Canada's Oscar submission has handily become the highest grossing Québécois film of 2014. (Read the 5-star review of Mommy here.)  


Mommy is doing gangbusters, accumulating a reported $2 417 041 in just five weeks at the box office, which is impressive since the film's release mostly remains restricted to Quebec and Toronto. (It opens in Ottawa on October 31 at The ByTowne.) Mommy surpassed Quebec's other moneymaker of 2014, 1987, which hit $2 414 314 in its twelfth week at the box office. Mommy, taking in just over $200 000 this weekend, looks to be on track to surpass The Grand Seduction, which Playback reports as having just over $2.7 million at the Canadian box office as of Oct. 16 after 20 weeks in theatres. Mommy's rejuvenation of Quebec's box office is especially impressive, for Dolan's other 2014 release Tom at the Farm earned something in the ballpark of $400 000 in 13 weeks in Canadian theatres under the same distributor, eOne/Les Films Séville. The reigning moneymaker for 2014 remains the Canadian co-production Pompeii, which grossed over $4 million in Canuck b.o. By comparison, though, Canada's 2013 Oscar contender Gabrielle grossed around $1.5 million after twenty-two weeks at the box office. There's no stopping Mommy!