Run Terry Run Sets Box Office Record for Canadian Documentary

Audiences aren’t walking to Run Terry Run. They’re running. The documentary directed by Sean Menard set a 10-year high for English-language Canadian documentary at the national box office. Opening in 150 theatres across Canada—a record for a documentary in the country, excluding music docs, since Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11—Run Terry Run scored $116,000 at the domestic box office this weekend according to distributor Elevation Pictures. That breaks the record of $114,000 that Rob Stewart’s Revolution set in 2014. Run Terry Run took in a total of $170,000 across the Thanksgiving long weekend as audiences continue to be inspired by the Terry Fox story.

Run Terry Run offers an all-archival account of Fox’s 1980 cross-Canada run to raise awareness for cancer research. The film shares rare and newly restored images of Fox’s trek, along with audio interviews of key participants and observers of the Marathon of Hope, including Fox’s brother Darrell, friend and driver Doug Alward, and journalist Leslie Scrivener.

Run Terry Run is produced by Menard and Molly Ye with Lucas Lee serving as archival producer. Rocker Bryan Adams recorded a track of the film’s closing credits, “The Ballad of Terry Fox.” The film premiered in September at the Toronto International Film Festival and

The box office success for Run Terry Run is especially notable when very few documentaries receive full theatrical runs. That number dips even lower for Canadian feature docs, which generally go straight to broadcasters’ streaming sites after festival premieres and single-event screenings. In 2026, only four other Canadian feature documentaries received theatrical runs in Toronto outside of one-to-two-day screenings: Agatha’s Almanac, The Art of Adventure, Black Zombie, and Speechless. Those docs opened at one location each (excluding one-off rep screenings), a far number from Run Terry Run’s 150 locations.

By comparison, political doc Melania opened at 51 theatres nationwide earlier this year in one of the wider releases for a documentary, but sold only 58 tickets across the GTA, according to the Toronto Star, concert doc EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert scored $13.5 USD in North America during its run, which ran at over 1900 theatres, including many premium IMAX screens.

Run Terry Run continues its run on the festival circuit even as it hits theatres. It screens in competition for the WIFF Prize in Canadian Film at Windsor later this month.

The post Run Terry Run Sets Box Office Record for Canadian Documentary appeared first on POV Magazine.