A languid session at the North American box office presented Summit’s new arrival Warm Bodies with easy pickings.

Box office for the top 12 dropped 22.6% against last weekend and fell 28% compared to the same session last year, when Chronicle opened top through Fox on $22m closely followed by The Woman In Black through CBS Films.

Warm Bodies, a zombie rom-com from Jonathan Levine, stars Nicholas Hoult and Teresa Palmer and debuted on $19.5m.

Sylvester Stallone’s new release Bullet To The Head did not fare so well and arrived in sixth place on $4.5m. Walter Hill directed the action thriller also starring Sung Kang.

Silver Linings Playbook and Zero Dark Thirty continued to impress and the Oscar nominees rank third on $80.4m and fifth on $77.8m, respectively.

Stand Up Guys starring Al Pacino and Christopher Walken opened through Lionsgate at number 17 on $1.5m. SPC’s Oscar nominee The Gatekeepers debuted on $66,700 from three sites for a $22,233 site average.

Next weekend’s wide releases are Universal’s comedy Identity Theft with Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy, as well as Steven Soderbergh’s crime drama Side Effects with Channing Tatum, Rooney Mara and Jude Law through Open Road Films.

Estimated Top 10 North America Feb 1-3 2012
Film (Dist) / Est wkd gross / Est total to date

1 (-) Warm Bodies (Summit) Summit International $19.5m $20m
2 (1) Hansel And Gretel: Witch Hunters (Paramount) PPI $9.2m $34.5m
3 (4) Silver Linings Playbook (TWC) TWC International $8.1m $80.4m
4 (2) Mama (Universal) UPI $6.7m $58.3m
5 (3) Zero Dark Thirty (Columbia Pictures) Panorama/Universal $5.3m $77.8m
6 (-) Bullet To The Head (Warner Bros) IM Global $4.5m –
7 (5) Parker (FilmDistrict) Sierra/Affinity $3.2m $12.4m
8 (6) Django Unchained (TWC) SPRI $3m $150.9m
9 (9) Les Misérables (Universal/Working Title) UPI $2.44m $141.5m
10 (11) Lincoln (DreamWorks-Buena Vista) Fox International $2.41m $170.8m