CinemaNerdz

Weekend Box-Office: Underworld Awakens to a #1 Finish

Seth Paul

Vampires and werewolves won the weekend, but this time, Stephenie Meyer had nothing to do with them; the bloody Underworld: Awakening led the box office this time around, and though critics aren’t saying much good about it, moviegoers gave the $70 million budgeted film an estimated $25.4 million opening. While profits overall still continue to tumble since the beginning of the year, it was still an up weekend compared to the same weekend last year, which may signal an uptick in the cinematic world’s doldrums. It even opened at a better estimated amount than last week’s top winner, Contraband, which slipped to 3rd and an estimated $12.2 million, though Contraband has already proven successful at the box office. Another debut this weekend, Red Tails, opened to an estimated $19.1 million and has even less of a ladder to climb than Underworld with its $58 million budget, but with George Lucas as executive producer, it’ll be interesting to see if its critical panning still leads to it being a hit or a miss.

In perhaps surprising news, Steven Soderbergh’s action thriller Haywire debuted in fifth place with an estimated $9 million, behind the drama Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, which has been out in limited release for five weeks. Opening to wide release, Extremely Loud made an estimated $10.5 million, meaning the $11.2 million it has made in total gross is mostly thanks to this weekend alone.

Beauty and the Beast’s 3D debut plummeted to sixth with an estimated $8.6 million (perhaps due, unlike the previous Lion King, to the film’s 3D release on home video before the theatrical release), but the over 20-year-old movie still held up against Joyful Noise, which earned an estimated $6.1 million. Joyful Noise is still on its way to success, however, as in two weeks it has nearly made back its $25 million budget.

Eighth, ninth, and tenth places go to Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, respectively. Though all of these films have proven successful, Dragon Tattoo’s estimated $3.8 million has finally made it a domestic success, besting its incredibly large $90 million budget. The other two have become mega-hits in their own rights, not only besting their budgets, but with Ghost Protocol making an estimated $5.5 million and Sherlock Holmes with an estimated $4.8 million after six decent weekends, sequels not only seem likely, but certain.

Weekend Box-Office (January 20 – January 22)

  1. Underworld: Awakening…$25.4 million
  2. Red Tails…$19.1 million
  3. Contraband…$12.2 million
  4. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close…$11.2 million
  5. Haywire…$9 million
  6. Beauty and the Beast 3D…$8.6 million
  7. Joyful Noise…$6.1 million
  8. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol…$5.5 million
  9. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows…$4.8 million
  10. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo…$3.8 million

Seth Paul

When not failing to write novels and screenplays, box-office guru Seth writes humorous comedy tracks for films under the name "The One Man Band" that can be found at Rifftrax.com. Although, he has recently succeeded in writing the novella "Jack Alan and the Case of the Not-Exactly Rocket Scientists," available as an eBook on Amazon. He is also the English voice of Zak in "Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space."
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