With the Oscars just a month or so away, Jessica Chastain couldn’t have asked for a much better moment to be thrust further into the public eye; the star is in the top two grossing films from the weekend’s US Box Office, with supernatural thriller Mama topping the charts and the Oscar-nominated Zero Dark Thirty taking second place.

Opening above expectations, the BBC reports that Mama took in a credible $28.1 million, with Zero Dark Thirty – which is based on the US army’s search for terrorist Osama Bin Laden – taking $17.6 million for second; this in spite of criticisms about the film’s handling of interrogation and torture scenes. Behind that, Silver Linings Playbook – another Oscar favourite – continued its success, taking a further $11.4 million on its 10th week of release. There was slightly better news for the disappointing Gangster Squad too; the mobster film had taken disappointing opening takings the previous weekend, but managed to hold on to a top five placing on its second weekend with takings of $9.1 million. It still doesn’t look like setting the world alight, but at least it’s not dropped off the map entirely.

Rounding out the top five was Broken City, which took $9 million, whilst elsewhere Django Unchained became Quentin Tarantino’s most commercially successful film ever, as it added $8.2 million to its total to reach $138.4 million domestically.

Check out the trailer for Mama