Warm Bodies storms US box office

Nicholas Hoult with his Australian co-star at the Warm Bodies premiere in Los Angeles

Warm Bodies has topped the US box office with takings of $20m (£14.7m) in its opening weekend.

The zombie romantic-comedy stars Skins actor Nicholas Hoult and Teresa Palmer.

It bumped Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters down to second place making $9.2m (£6.8m), while Silver Linings Playbook moved up a spot to third position with sales of $8.1m (£5.9m).

Two films starring Jessica Chastain, Mama and Zero Dark Thirty, took up fourth and fifth place.

The horror picture Mama made $6.7m, ahead of Zero Dark Thirty, a thriller charting the killing of Osama Bin Laden, earning $5.3m.

Teen crowd

Females made up for 60% of the audience watching the adaptation of Isaac Marion's book Warm Bodies over Super Bowl weekend, which usually sees a slump in movie-going from Saturday to Sunday.

However, teenage fans were still seduced by the film, which references Romeo and Juliet and was produced by Lionsgate, the film company behind the teen saga Twilight.

"They've definitely cracked the code on how to attract that teen audience with films like The Hunger Games, Twilight and something like Warm Bodies, which definitely plays right into the sweet spot of that demographic," said Hollywood.com box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian.

R-rated action films, which mean under-17s require an accompanying parent or adult guardian, have not fared so well in 2013.

Sylvester Stallone's Bullet to the Head opened with just $4.5m (£3.3m) for Warner Bros, while Parker, starring Jason Statham, has now earned a total of $12.4m (£9.1m) in two weeks for FilmDistrict.

But the latest Die Hard movie with Bruce Willis, titled A Good Day To Die Hard, opens on 14 February and is expected to buck the trend.