Cineplex Galaxy Income Fund's profit tripled in the second quarter as revenue climbed to $248.6 million from $209.3 million a year earlier.

The fund earned $19.9 million, more than three times higher than year-earlier profit of $6 million.

Box office ticket sales of $151.4 million in the period ended June 30 produced the highest quarterly box office revenues since the fund's inception.

"We attribute this growth to the wide and varied appeal of the movies on screen … in April, a month that historically has not featured strong releases," chief executive officer Ellis Jacob said during a conference call on Thursday.

In recent quarters, Ellis has expressed concern that sales might be hurt by the slowing economy, but second-quarter concession sales were robust.

"In the last 12 months, we haven't raised our prices at the concession stands," Jacob said. "Our focus is to attract as many people to our theatres, and we are very, very cautious" on pricing.

New releases such as Star Trek and Up helped draw 18.2 million people to Cineplex screens during the period, up more than 16 per cent from the 15.6 million during the same period a year earlier.

And the fund earned $8.34 from every patron during the quarter, up from $8.08 during the same period last year.

The fund also boosted its distributable cash to 62 cents per unit, a 55 per cent increase from last year's 40 cents figure.

The fund distributed 31.5 cents per unit, compared with 31 cents per unit a year ago.

The Toronto-based fund owns 99 per cent of Cineplex Entertainment LP, which has a stake in 129 theatres with 1,328 screens across Canada.

With files from The Canadian Press