For the second week in a row, three new movies entered cinemas, and only one of them is scoring healthy grosses, leaving the other two to languish right out of the gate.

Almost a year after its originally scheduled March 2012 release, Paramount’s $50 million Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters topped the chart on its first Friday with $6.0 million from 3,372 theaters. The poorly reviewed film (a phrase that applies to all this weekend’s new releases) stars Gemma Arteron and Jeremy Renner, but the Avengers star has demonstrated little drawing power as a leading man so far. Hansel and Gretel may take in about $16 million worth of [gingerbread] dough over the full weekend frame.

Former box office champ Mama dropped back into second place with $3.8 million, putting it on pace for a $13 million sophomore weekend, which would represent a not-so-scary-for-a-horror-movie 53 percent decline.

Two Oscar contenders took up the next two spots on the chart. Silver Linings Playbook added more gold to its total, dropping only 22 percent from last Friday to $2.3 million. Zero Dark Thirty, meanwhile, suffered a heftier 49 percent decline to $2.3 million as well. Both films are headed to weekends in the $8-9 million range, which would lift their respective totals to just under $70 million.

Jason Statham’s latest action flick Parker didn’t get any boost from the presence of Jennifer Lopez. Parker found only $2.3 million on Friday, putting it on pace for a weak $6 million opening frame. Still, that’s better than the comedy Movie 43, which opened with a disastrous $1.8 million yesterday, despite starring almost every actor and actress in Hollywood.

1. Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters – $6.0 million
2. Mama – $3.8 million
3. Silver Linings Playbook – $2.3 million
4. Zero Dark Thirty – $2.3 million
5. Parker – $2.1 million
6. Movie 43 – $1.8 million

– Grady Smith

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