Jessica Chastain’s `Mama` and `Zero Dark Thirty` take top 2 spots at box office

Washington: Jessica Chastain easily outmuscled Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mark Wahlberg and topped the weekend box office with her supernatural horror film ‘Mama’ and the Oscar-nominated Osama bin Laden hunt thriller ‘Zero Dark Thirty’. According to studio estimates Sunday, ‘Mama’ opened well above expectations with a box-office topping 28.1 million dollars for Universal Pictures, Fox News reported. Chastain also held the second spot with ‘Zero Dark Thirty’, for which she’s nominated by the Academy Awards for best actress. In its second week of wide release, ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ took in 17.6 million dollars. Schwarzenegger’s post-governorship comeback got off to a terrible start by coming in 10th place after his action flick ‘The Last Stand’ opened with just 6.3 million dollars for Lionsgate, one of the worst debuts for the brawny 65-year-old star. The Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe-led New York crime film ‘Broken City’ didn’t fare much better and the Fox release premiered with 9.1 million dollars. The Weinstein Co.’s ‘Silver Linings Playbook’, nominated for eight Academy Awards including best picture, expanded to its largest number of theatres in its 10th week of release. Playing in 2,523 theatres, a jump of 1,713 theatres, the David O. Russell film took in 11.4 million dollars on the weekend - the same in which its star Jennifer Lawrence hosted ‘Saturday Night Live’ - for a cumulative of 55.3 million dollars. The top 10 movies at the weekend box office were: Mama – 28.1 million dollars Zero Dark Thirty – 17.6 million dollars Silver Linings Playbook – 11.4 million dollars Gangster Squad – 9.1 million dollars Broken City – 9 million dollars A Haunted House – 8.3 million dollars Django Unchained – 8.2 million dollars Les Miserables – 7.8 million dollars The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – 6.4 million dollars The Last Stand – 6.3 million dollars ANI