Jessica Chastain overpowered Mark Wahlberg, Arnold Schwarzenegger and others as her low-budget horror flick emerged as the North American weekend box-office champ and her Oscar-nominated Zero Dark Thirty captured the second spot as well.
This is a great result, one we never would have expected especially for a film of this genre
Chastain’s supernatural thriller, Mama, pulled in $28.1 million (€21 million) from Friday through to Sunday at US and Canadian theatres, according to studio estimates, beating out a crop of new testosterone-fuelled, male-targeted releases that finished far back in the pack.
Zero Dark Thirty, for which Chastain is a leading best actress Oscar contender, took in $17.6 million (€13.2 million), while another late 2012 release and Oscar favourite, Silver Linings Playbook, finished third with $11.35 million (€8.5 million).
Broken City, a crime thriller starring Wahlberg and Russell Crowe, finished fifth with $9 million (€6.7 million) behind Gangster Squad’s $9.1 million (€6.8 million), while Schwarzenegger’s new action film, The Last Stand, earned $6.3 million (€4.7 million) for a dismal 10th place.
Mama stars Chastain as a guitarist who does not want children but is forced to take care of two orphaned nieces who have been living in the woods. She and her husband try to readjust the little girls to normal life.
Based on a 2008 short film, the movie was produced for roughly $15 million (€11.2 million).
“This is a great result, one we never would have expected,” said Nikki Rocco, Universal’s president for domestic distribution.
“The timing was perfect,” she said, noting “the key was it’s a PG-13 movie that appealed to the under-25 female audience”.
The studio said it was hopeful that as the only PG-13 film in release this month it would continue to find an audience.
Chastain is a best actress Oscar nominee for her role as a dogged CIA agent in Zero Dark Thirty, the weekend’s second-place film about the decade-long manhunt for Osama bin Laden. The movie has taken in $55.9 million (€41.9 million) since late December.
The studio noted that the weekend was crowded with several moviegoing choices, and that two films were competing for the same audience, referring to the weekend’s other new movie, Broken City, which stars Wahlberg as a former New York cop who uncovers a scandal involving the mayor, played by Russell Crowe.
The top 10 movies were rounded out by A Haunted House, Django Unchained, Les Misérables and The Hobbit: an Unexpected Journey.