Eventually, the popular opinion on zombies is going to shift and people are going to stop watching 'The Walking Dead' and buying zombie-themed video games, but that day is not today. People still love zombies and if the opening weekend is any indication, they love 'Warm Bodies.'

FilmWeekendPer Screen
1Warm Bodies$19,505,000$6,482$20,025,000
2Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters$9,210,000 (-53.2)$2,729$34,463,000
3Silver Linings Playbook$8,113,000 (-14.1)$2,888$80,378,000
4Mama$6,730,000 (-48.6)$2,420$58,262,000
5Zero Dark Thirty$5,300,000 (-45.4)
$1,846$77,798,000
6Bullet to the Head$4,500,000$1,872$4,500,000
7Parker$3,215,000 (-54.1)$1,437$12,440,000
8Django Unchained$3,039,000 (-38.6)$1,710$150,979,000
9Les Miserables$2,439,000 (-42.2)$1,320$141,523,000
10Lincoln$2,412,000 (-37.6)$1,374$170,787,000

 

With a $19.5 million opening weekend, 'Warm Bodies' exceeded all expectations, making it the third 2013 release to have an unexpectedly strong opening. The next few weeks will tells us whether or not it'll have the legs to be a major hit, but the mostly positive critical response suggests that it will.

On the opposite end of "successful opening," you'll find Sylvester Stallone's 'Bullet to the Head,' which opened in sixth place with a devastating $4.5 million. After this, 'The Last Stand' and 'Parker,' it'll probably be a good long time before someone gives the green light to another manly, R-rated action movie. Insert sad face emoticon here.

Although 'Mama' and 'Hansel & Gretel' continued to play (the former is a bonafide hit with $58 million and the latter is on the road to breaking even with $34 million), the real non-'Warm Bodies' winners at the box office this week were all of the major awards contenders. 'Silver Linings Playbook' held onto the number three spot and dropped a tiny 14%, earning $8 million for an $80 million total ($100 million is a sure thing at this point). If you ever wanted proof that the "slow roll-out to build buzz" approach works...

Meanwhile, 'Zero Dark Thirty' is starting to lose momentum, but you can't argue with that $77.7 million gross. A crowd-pleaser like 'Silver Linings Playbook' was always going to out-gross a long, pitch black work of cinematic journalism, but this is not a gross to scoff at. 'Django Unchained' is also starting to slow down, but it's topped $150 million -- it reached the "everything else is gravy" mark a long time ago (the same goes for 'Les Miserables' and its $141 million).

But the real winner of the various Oscar nominees is Steven Spielberg's 'Lincoln,' which re-entered the top ten and hit $170 million. That's amazing. If it sweeps the Oscars (don't count on it, but if), it could have the legs to get to $200 million. Then again, Ben Affleck's 'Argo' is creeping back up the charts and hanging out at the fringes of the top ten, so 'Lincoln's main Oscar competition isn't doing so bad itself.

Next week sees the release of 'Side Effects,' but expect 'Warm Bodies' to cling to the top...unless 'Silver Linings Playbook' finally goes in for the kill.

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