Mama is top on US box office

Supernatural thriller Mama

Supernatural thriller Mama has topped the US box office with its star Jessica Chastain leading in this weekend's two top grossing films. It opened above expectations, earning $28.1m (£18m) while Zero Dark Thirty, in which Chastain leads the hunt for Osama Bin Laden made $17.6m (£11m). Continuing its success, the Oscar-nominated Silver Linings Playbook made $11.4m (£7m) after 10 weeks on release. Rounding off the top five were crime films Gangster Squad and Broken City.

While horror films generally have a greater appeal with male audiences, Mama was a big hit with females, who made up 61% of its audience.

The weekend's other films included Broken City, Django Unchained, Gangster Squad and The Last Stand.

Female audience

"Never underestimate the drawing power of a PG-13 horror film," Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for movie tracker Hollywood.com said of Mama, which tells the tale of sisters Victoria and Lily who disappeared in the woods the day their mother was murdered by their father.

Elsewhere in the chart, Arnold Schwarzenegger's post-politics comeback failed to ignite cinema-goers. His action film, The Last Stand debuted with just $6.3m (£4m) to take the number 10 spot, making it one of the worst openings for the 65-year-old Terminator star.

While Schwarzenegger co-starred in The Expendables 2 in August, action comedy The Last Stand was his first lead role since he exited the California governor's seat in January 2011.

Quentin Tarantino had another successful week with his Oscar-nominated Django Unchained. After four weeks on release in north America, the Spaghetti Western became the director's biggest box office success, outperforming his previous film Inglourious Basterds, by adding $8.2 million for a domestic total of $138.4m (£87m).

Internationally, the film did exceptionally well, taking in $48.1m (£30m) in its opening weekend.

Other Oscar favourites saw their largest boost internationally. Ang Lee's 3-D fantasy Life of Pi added $20.7m (£13m) to its huge $393.9m (£248m) international haul.

The international take for Tom Hooper's musical, Les Miserables, also grew to $150.5m (£95m) with $19.4 million on the weekend.

NORTH AMERICAN TOP FIVE

1. Mama $28.1m

2. Zero Dark Thirty $17.6m

3. Silver Linings Playbook $11.4m

4. Gangster Squad $9.1m

5. Broken City $9m

source: bbc.com

Jennifer Lawrence Spoofs Hunger Games, Disses Fellow Oscar Nominees on Saturday Night Live

Following her Golden Globes win (and acceptance speech controversy) last Sunday, Jennifer Lawrence hit Saturday Night Live this week to show off her comedy chops.

The Academy Award-nominated Silver Linings Playbook star hosted the show for the first time, kicking off the evening by letting everyone know that when it comes to the other actresses in her category there's nothing standing between her and Oscar gold this year. 

"One thing happened at the Globes that I need to clarify. During my acceptance speech, I said ‘I beat Meryl,' which is a quote from the movie The First Wives Club, but which some people took as me trash-talking Meryl Streep, which is crazy," Lawrence said in her opening monologue. "I would never trash-talk any of my fellow nominees at the Golden Globes...but the Oscars are another story."

"Jessica Chastain? 

More like Jessica ain't winning an Oscar on my watch," Lawrence went on, going on to challenge the other Best Actress nominees—Naomi Watts, Quvenzhane Wallis, and Emmanuelle Riva. "An 85-year-old French lady. Yeah, I think I can take you," Lawrence said of the Amour star.

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Prior to Lawrence's nominee diss, SNL cracked jokes on two big stories this week—the much-memed Manti Te'o controversy and Lance Armstrong's doping admission.

On a spoofed Piers Morgan Tonight, Piers Morgan (Taran Killam) interviewed a clueless Te'O (Bobby Moynihan) and an angry, unapologetic Armstrong (Jason Sudeikis).

"Am I sorry I did it? Yes...ish," Armstrong (Sudeikis) said. "P.S. No."

Jodie Foster (Kate McKinnon) also popped up into the mix after her um, interesting, Golden Globes speech, saying, "I'm just gonna put it out there, loud and proud, I am ga…me for anything. I'm officially a Les…lie Nielsen fan and I love girls. The show."

As for Lawrence's sketches for the evening, she went on to parody The Hunger Games, showing up as Katniss with Peeta (Killam) at a post-Hunger Games press conference.

Reporters were on hand to rip the duo, asking questions like, "Peeta, have you been using performance reducing drugs?" and "What kind of name is Katniss?"

"My grandmother had a severe speech impediment and we never knew if that's [the name] she had in mind," Katniss (Lawrence) replied. The Hunger Games star also went on to play an irritable Elf Queen in a spoof of the Hobbit (in which the final two films were divided into 18 other movies), a belittling waitress, and a rapping radio intern, among other things.

But, one of her best sketches came at the end of the show in "Love Letters," in which she played Madeline Cook, a woman in the civil war in love with a soldier whose penmanship wasn't as um, eloquent, as hers. While she was writing letters to her fiancé filled with romantic prose, his letters basically were focused on getting her to send him a "tit pic."

The Lumineers were on hand to fittingly perform a song from Silver Linings Playbook, "Ho Hey," as well as "Stubborn Love."

So, tell us…what did you think of Lawrence's hosting stint? Sound off in the comments.