'Hansel & Gretel' tops at the box office

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters secured the top spot on the movie box office charts this weekend, ranking in $19 million in the U.S and Canada.

Reuters reports  the film, an interpretation of the classic children’s story starring Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton earned the top spot, beating Mama , which earned $12.8 million Friday through Sunday.

The website continues to report Silver Linings Playbook , starring Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper, took the third spot with $10 million and Zero Dark Thirty took fourth with $9.8 million.

Hansel & Gretel takes the classic fairy tale and turns it upside down. The film takes the two main characters and makes them a little older and more violent, as they make it their mission to hunt down witches who hurt little children.

As we previously reported , earlier this week Arterton spoke about her “very strong [and] independent character.” It now appears this character helped dominate the box office this weekend.

The film is playing nationwide.