Zombie film proves to have a lot of life

The romantic zombie comedy Warm Bodies topped the North American box office on its opening weekend, earning more than twice as much as its nearest rival.

Nicholas Hoult, left, and Teresa Palmer in a scene from Warm Bodies, which topped the box office in North America. Summit Entertainment / AP Photo

What do the living dead, the 19th century president Abraham Lincoln and Osama bin Laden have in common?

The answer is films about them all appear in the top 10 US box office takings list at the weekend.

The romantic zombie comedy Warm Bodies topped the North American box office on its opening weekend, industry estimates said, earning more than twice as much as its nearest rival.

Warm Bodies, based on Isaac Marion's book of the same name and inspired by Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, took a healthy US$20 million (Dh73.46m) in sales.

Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunt, a horror movie twist on the classic fairy tale took a distant second, pulling in $9.2m.

Oscars season has helped a string of contenders stay in the top 10, with the romantic comedy Silver Linings Playbook taking third place with $8.1m in takings, according to the box office tracker Exhibitor Relations.

The horror flick Mama, in which a shadowy being trails two young children rescued after being lost in the woods when their parents died, fell from second to fourth place on its third weekend in theatres, with $6.7m in sales.

The Oscar-tipped Osama bin Laden manhunt movie Zero Dark Thirty slipped to fifth place with $5.3m, followed by Sylvester Stallone's latest effort, Bullet to the Head, which opened in sixth place with $4.5m.

Parker, starring Jason Statham and Jennifer Lopez working together on a heist, fell from fifth to seventh place on its second weekend in cinemas, taking $3.2m in box office sales.

Meanwhile, Quentin Tarantino's blood-soaked spaghetti Western tribute Django Unchained, which last month won two Golden Globes and gained four Oscar nominations, was in eighth spot, earning $3m.

That put it ahead of musical adaptation Les Misérables, which took in $2.44m, in ninth place.

Rounding out the top 10 was Lincoln, Steven Spielberg's Oscar hopeful starring Daniel Day-Lewis as the revered 19th Century US president, which with $2.41m re-entered the chart by jumping up one place from 11th last week.

In October, Paranormal Activity 4 hit $30.2m on its opening weekend, the highest yet for a horror movie.

* with Bloomberg News