In this task, you are given news articles and you need to generate a highlight, i.e., a short summary, with a maximum length of 10 lines.

(EW.com) -- This weekend, "Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters" hunted down the No. 1 spot at the box office with $19 million from 3,372 theaters. Although "Hansel and Gretel" can hardly be called a fairy-tale success at this point, it proved far more bewitching than fellow newcomers "Parker" and "Movie 43," which were left with only bread crumbs in their sad debut frame. Paramount and MGM spent $50 million to produce "Hansel and Gretel," which was shot in 2011 and originally scheduled to be released in March 2012. Distributor Paramount moved the film's release to this month to capitalize on star Jeremy Renner, whom the studio hoped would blossom into a true box-office draw following "The Avengers" and "The Bourne Legacy." (It also seems likely that "Hansel and Gretel" got placed in January due to its poor quality — January tends to be a dumping ground for studios' stinkers.) Whether or not Renner had anything to do with it, the date change proved at least somewhat effective — "Hansel and Gretel" outgrossed the last supernatural fantasy with Hunter in the title, "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter," which staked a weak $16.3 million in its debut frame. 3-D showings of "Hansel and Gretel" accounted for 55 percent of its weekend gross, while IMAX made up 11 percent of the total. Due to its R rating, the Grimm tale played primarily to older audiences — 57 percent of crowds were above the age of 25, and 55 percent were male. Audiences issued the film a lukewarm "B" CinemaScore grade, so it seems unlikely that Hansel and Gretel will achieve strong word of mouth. Fortunately for Paramount (the studio suffered a rough winter with Jack Reacher, The Guilt Trip, Cirque Du Soleil: Worlds Away, and Rise of the Guardians — which passed $100 million this weekend), the film has already earned $35.8 million from international territories representing about 40 percent of the overseas market. Last weekend's box office champ, Mama, dropped 55 percent into second place with $12.9 million. With $48.7 million after 10 days, Universal's $15 million horror entry has officially surpassed Gangster Squad as 2013′s highest grossing release. Of course, that will change faster than you could say "Iron Man 3," but it's an impressive performance nonetheless. 'Downton Abbey': Big season 4 spoiler! Two Oscar contenders finished in third and fourth place with almost identical weekend grosses — not to mention almost identical totals. "Silver Linings Playbook" dropped by an incredibly small 7 percent in its 11th weekend to $10 million. Weinstein's $21 million drama continues to benefit from great word of mouth. And with $69.5 million so far and another month until the Oscars still to go, director David O. Russell's Playbook is on track to finish above $100 million. "Zero Dark Thirty," meanwhile, fell by a steeper 38 percent to $9.8 million and $69.9 million total in its sixth weekend. The $40 million Sony drama will need to notch better holds if it wants to join fellow Best Picture nominees Argo, Lincoln, Django Unchained, Les Miserables, and Life of Pi in the $100 million club. Norah Jones to do 'Ted' song at Oscars . Jason Statham's annual action misfire "Parker" lived up to its low expectations, finishing in fifth place with $7 million from 2,224 theaters. FilmDistrict's shoot-em-up, whose budget was in the $35 million range, didn't get any boost from costar Jennifer Lopez, who proved unable to attract viewers outside her go-to rom-com genre. Parker opened short of Statham's last three leading efforts, Safe ($7.9 million debut), Killer Elite, ($9.3 million), and The Mechanic ($11.4 million), and it will likely finish below $20 million domestically. Between Parker, The Last Stand, Broken City, and Gangster Squad, January has been a difficult month for non-fantasy gun-driven violence. But at least audiences enjoyed Parker — it earned a "B+" CinemaScore grade. 1. Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters -- $19.0 million . 2. Mama -- $12.9 million . 3. Silver Linings Playbook -- $10.0 million . 4. Zero Dark Thirty -- $9.8 million . 5. Parker -- $7.0 million . See the original story at EW.com. CLICK HERE to Try 2 RISK FREE issues of Entertainment Weekly . © 2011 Entertainment Weekly and Time Inc. All rights reserved.
"Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters" hunted down the No. 1 spot at the box office .
The movie scored $19 million from 3,372 theaters .
"Parker" and "Movie 43" were left with only bread crumbs in their sad debut frame .

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday defended the Bush administration's economic record, the invasion of Iraq and the treatment of suspected terrorists, warning that reversing its anti-terrorism policies endangers Americans. "We've accomplished nearly everything we set out to do," ex-Vice President Dick Cheney says Sunday about Iraq. In a wide-ranging interview with CNN's "State of the Union," Cheney said the harsh interrogations of suspects and the use of warrantless electronic surveillance were "absolutely essential" to get information to prevent more attacks like the 2001 suicide hijackings that targeted New York and Washington. "President Obama campaigned against it all across the country, and now he is making some choices that, in my mind, will, in fact, raise the risk to the American people of another attack," he said. Critics said the Bush administration's "alternative" interrogation techniques amounted to the torture of prisoners in American custody, while the administration's warrantless surveillance program violated federal laws enacted after the Watergate scandal. Since taking office in January, Obama has announced plans to close the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to halt the military trials of suspected terrorists there, and to make CIA officers follow the Army field manual's rules on interrogations. Cheney said the administration appears to be returning to the pre-2001 model of treating terrorism as a law enforcement issue, rather than a military problem. "When you go back to the law enforcement mode, which I sense is what they're doing, closing Guantanamo and so forth ... they are very much giving up that center of attention and focus that's required, that concept of military threat that is essential if you're going to successfully defend the nation against further attacks," he said. But Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pennsylvania, said the Bush administration's policies undercut "what is actually the source of America's greatness -- our principles." "How can we say that keeping a man in a black hole forever -- perpetually in a black hole -- and saying, 'Let's torture when we decide to,' is what America stands for?" asked Sestak, a former admiral who led the Navy's anti-terrorism efforts. The Bush administration took office at the end of an economic boom and left in the middle of a deep recession, with a budget surplus in 2001 becoming a $1 trillion-plus deficit by 2009. But Cheney said he and Bush had to spend money to deal with the September 11, 2001 attacks, the resulting war in Afghanistan, the disaster of 2005's Hurricane Katrina, and the costly and unpopular war in Iraq, now nearly six years old. "All of these things required us to spend money that we had not originally planned to spend, or weren't originally part of the budget," Cheney said. "Stuff happens. And the administration has to be able to respond to that, and we did." Obama has begun to wind down the war in Iraq, which has cost more than 4,200 American lives and nearly $700 billion in direct costs. But Cheney said the United States has "accomplished nearly everything we set out to do" in Iraq, including establishing a democratic government in the Middle East. Cheney was one of the administration's leading advocates of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, pressing the Bush administration's argument that Iraq was concealing weapons of mass destruction and could provide those weapons to terrorists. None of those weapons were found after the invasion, but Cheney said, "We've eliminated that possibility." In 2005, Cheney said the raging insurgency against U.S. troops was in its "last throes." Nearly two years later, a commitment of more than 30,000 additional American troops and a widespread effort to pay former insurgents to turn against Islamic militants helped quell the worst of the violence. "I don't hear much talk about that, but the fact is, the violence level is down 90 percent," Cheney said. "The number of casualties [among] Iraqis and Americans is significantly diminished. There's been elections, a constitution. They're about to have another presidential election here in the near future. We have succeeded in creating in the heart of the Middle East a democratically governed Iraq, and that is a big deal, and it is, in fact, what we set out to do." But Sestak said the administration was too slow to react to the problems it faced in Iraq and let the conflict overshadow the "whole fabric" of U.S. national security. "The cost of this war is something that I strongly believe has far, far hurt us," he said. "We're going to recover, because we're Americans. But Iraq was just one piece of our security, and this administration failed to realize that." Though considered one of the administration's most influential figures, Cheney said President Bush rebuffed his advice on at least two issues.  Watch Cheney tout Bush administration » . He said Bush left former Cheney aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby "sort of hanging in the wind" by refusing to issue Libby a pardon before leaving office. Libby was convicted of perjury, obstruction of justice, and lying to federal agents investigating the leak of a former CIA officer's identity. "I believe firmly that Scooter was unjustly accused and prosecuted and deserved a pardon, and the president disagreed with that," Cheney said. He would disclose no details of his efforts to lobby the president on Libby's behalf, saying they would be "best left to history." And Cheney said he argued against the administration's policy on North Korea, which tested a nuclear weapon in 2006. The Bush administration reached a still-incomplete disarmament deal with the isolated Stalinist state in 2007 and removed it from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism as part of the deal. "I had my say," Cheney told CNN. "I got my chance to voice my views and my objections. I didn't think the North Koreans were going to keep their end of the bargain in terms of what they agreed to, and they didn't." The Obama administration has nominated Christopher Hill, the State Department official who was the top U.S. negotiator with North Korea, to be the U.S. ambassador to Iraq. Cheney said Hill lacks the Middle East experience that his predecessors have, and "I did not support the work that Chris Hill did with respect to North Korea." "I think it's a choice that I wouldn't have made," he said.
NEW: Cheney: Harsh interrogations, warrantless eavesdropping "essential"
NEW: Former vice president says Bush rebuffed his advice on two big issues .
"An administration has to be able to respond to [crises] and we did," Cheney said .
Cheney cites costs of dealing with 9/11 attacks, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq .

Lisbon, Portugal (CNN)  -- Pope Benedict XVI made one of his strongest statements to date on the sex abuse scandal sweeping the Roman Catholic Church, saying Tuesday the reality he has seen is "terrifying." And he distanced himself from criticism of the media by senior Vatican officials, saying the most important attacks on the church don't come from the outside, they come from the sins of the members of the church, CNN senior Vatican analyst John Allen said. Benedict was speaking on his plane en route to Portugal, where he is making a four-day visit. He has said very little in public about the scandal, which has swept Western Europe this year, leading bishops to quit or offer to quit in Ireland, Germany and Belgium. Hundreds of people have come forward this year saying they were abused by priests or other Catholic authority figures there and in Austria, Netherlands and the United States. He said three weeks ago he was "greatly moved" by meeting victims of abuse in Valletta, Malta. He said he gave the victims "assurances of the church's action" after the April 18 meeting. It is not clear if he plans to meet victims of abuse in Portugal, which has not been as badly shaken by the scandal as many other European countries.

Pope Benedict XVI says reality of church child abuse scandal is "terrifying"
Pontiff says most serious attacks on the church come from within .
Benedic was speaking en route to Portugal .

