Based on a 2008 short film, the movie was produced for roughly $15 million. PHOTO: FILE
Actor 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.
Chastain’s supernatural thriller, Mama, pulled in $28.1 million from Friday through Sunday at the US and Canadian theatres, according to studio estimates, beating out a crop of new testosterone-fueled, male-targeted releases that finished far back in the pack.
Zero Dark Thirty, for which Chastain is a leading best female actor Oscar contender, took in $17.6 million, while another late 2012 release and Oscar favourite, Silver Linings Playbook, finished third with $11.35 million.
Broken City, a crime thriller starring Wahlberg and Russell Crowe, finished fifth with $9 million behind Gangster Squad’s $9.1 million, while Schwarzenegger’s new action film, The Last Stand, earned $6.3 million for a dismal 10th place.
Mama stars Chastain as a guitarist who doesn’t 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 re-adjust the little girls to normal life.
Based on a 2008 short film, the movie was produced for roughly $15 million.
“This is a great result, one we never would have expected especially for a film of this genre,” 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.
The top 10 movies were rounded out by A Haunted House, Django Unchained, Les Miserables and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 22nd, 2013.
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