Quote:
"Royal Journey, the NFB's record of Princess Elizabeth's Canadian tour in the fall of 1951, will always be remembered for being the first feature film ever shot on Eastman colour 35mm film stock. It was originally to be a 20-minute newsreel but the NFB had shot a lot of good material and was not sure what to do with it. The president of Famous Players cinemas, J.J. Fitzgibbons, was asked to look at the 60-minute rough cut of the film and advise the editors. He told them to cut nothing out, and that he would gladly show the film in his theatres on one condition: that it be ready for a Christmas release, just one month away. NFB employees worked day and night to complete the film on time. Columbia Pictures premiered it on December 21, 1951, in Ottawa and then released it throughout Canada. After only 3 weeks it had grossed $250,000 in Canada alone. It was released in New York City by United Artists in January of 1952 and played throughout the USA. Royal Journey was, at the time, the most widely seen feature film in Canada, ever—2 million Canadians saw it in the first 3 years of release."
-- Albert Ohayon

Source:
Ohayon, Albert. "The NFB's 5 biggest box office successes." NFB Blog, October 02, 2013.