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4th 'Underworld' Awakens Box Office But More Viewers Saw 'Red Tails' Date: 1/24/2012 |
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Sony?s Underworld: Awakening took the weekend box office crown with an estimated $25.4 million as a trio of new action films helped push the box office some 26% above the totals for the same weekend last year when No Strings Attached opened at #1 with $19.7 million (though it was down 13% from 2010 when Avatar still ruled with $34.9 million). This strong box office performance came in spite of snow storms that overspread much of the North (while thunderstorms and tornados roared across the South) and the NFL championship games, which surely depressed audiences for action films on Sunday. Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): January 20 - 22, 2012 Film Weekend Gross Screens Avg./ Screen Total Gross Wk# 1 Underworld Awakening $25,400,000 3,078 $8,252 $25,400,000 1 2 Red Tails $19,100,000 2,512 $7,604 $19,100,000 1 3 Contraband $12,200,000 2,870 $4,251 $46,100,000 2 4 Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close $10,545,000 2,630 $4,010 $11,237,000 5 5 Haywire $9,000,000 2,439 $3,690 $9,000,000 1 6 Beauty and the Beast (3D) $8,556,000 2,625 $3,259 $33,364,000 2 7 Joyful Noise $6,075,000 2,735 $2,221 $21,903,000 2 8 Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol $5,540,000 2,519 $2,199 $197,349,000 6 9 Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows $4,805,000 2,485 $1,934 $178,611,000 6 10 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo $3,750,000 1,907 $1,966 $94,775,000 5 Kate Beckinsale returned for Underworld: Awakening, the fourth film in Sony?s vampire/werewolf/supernatural franchise. Awakening?s $25.4 million total is very similar to 2006?s Underworld: Evolution, which earned $26.9million, but the number of patrons who saw Awakening is far closer to the opening weekend audience for Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, which didn?t feature Beckinsale and opened in 2009 to $20.8 million. Fifty-five percent of the audience for Awakening was male, while 60% was 25 or older, and they gave the film a solid ?A-? CinemaScore, which was a lot better mark than one would expect based on the movie?s reviews that earned a feeble 27% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes. 3-D showings accounted for a substantial 59% of Awakening?s total with IMAX showings contributing 15% more, but the surcharges for 3-D and IMAX showings mean that George Lucas? Red Tails, which earned an estimated $19.1 million actually attracted more patrons than the latest Underworld film. Even though the critics didn?t like Red Tails, which recounts the exploits of the Tuskegee Airmen in World War II, giving the film only a 33% favorable rating, the film?s opening weekend audience, which was almost evenly divided by gender (51% male) and older (66% over 25), gave the movie an excellent ?A? CinemaScore (with those under 18 and over 50 giving the film a stellar ?A+?). Last week?s winner Contraband, which stars Mark Wahlberg and the nearly ubiquitous Kate Beckinsale, dropped 50%, which is not at all bad when considering the number of new action films opening and the NFL games. Made for just $25 million, Contraband has already earned $46.1 million domestically. Coming in fourth was the 9/11 drama Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, which in spite of a major marketing push, appears dead in the water unless Academy Award nominations can salvage it. Critics loved Stephen Soderbergh?s Haywire, which received a solid 82% positive rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. But when it comes to action films, the critics can?t tell their backsides from an open pit copper mine. Critics gave the film an ?A,? but audiences found the espionage flick starring female Martial Arts champion Gina Carano to be a failure, and gave it an extremely low ?D+? CinemaScore. To tote up this week?s score card, the critics only liked one of the three new action movies, Haywire, the only one of the trio that audiences emphatically rejected. The audience for Haywire was 55% male, 64% under 35, and 54% non-Caucasian. Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol declined 52.6%, but managed to bring its total to $197 million. It will be over $200 million domestically in the next week and it has already earned $336.7 million overseas for a worldwide total of $534 million. Another December action film with strong legs, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows dropped only 44% and brought its total to nearly $179 million?it still has a small chance at the $200 million mark domestically. Be sure to stop by here next week to see how a new trio of films that includes the ?man against nature? saga The Grey, and the crime thriller Man on the Ledge, and the Janet Evanovich detective saga One for the Money vie for box office supremacy. |
| Source: ICv2 |
