At the Movies with Monica Petrucci from Tinsel Town

Box Office Report: ‘Underworld 4′ takes $25.4-M, ‘Red Tails’ Over performs with $19.1-M

“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” earns $10.5-M on nationwide expand, “Haywire” opens # 5 with $9-M; “The Artist” expands into a total of 662 theaters.

The domestic box office enjoyed another Strong weekend as Screen Gems’ Underworld: Awakening and George Lucas’ Red Tails topped the box office with $25.4-M and $19.1-M, respectively, driving revenues up by more than 30% despite Wintry weather in the Midwest and East.

Red Tails, about the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II, did way better than expected. George Lucas spent 20 yrs pursuing the project, and recently revealed he could not get any studio to finance the film because of an all-Black cast. He finally decided to put up the money himself, and spent $58-M on the production budget and another $35-M in distribution costs.

Fox, which handles Lucas’ Star Wars films, is distributing and marketing Red Tails, which received an “A” CinemaScore.

Underworld Awakening, the 4th outing in the Kate Beckinsale Vampire-Werewolf franchise, benefited from being released in 3-D, with IMAX accounting for 15% of the grosses. The Horror/Action pic, which received an A- CinemaScore, out-grossed 2 of the 3 previous titles in the series, unusual for a 4 installment.

# 3; Underworld: Rise of the Lycons debuted to $20.7-M in January 2009, a franchise low. The Original Underworld opened to $21.8-M, followed by $26.9-M for sequel Underworld: Evolution.

Underworld: Awakening, co-produced by Sony and Lakeshore Entertainment for $70-M. Males made up 55% of the audience, and 60% of those buying tickets were over the age of 25.

Red Tails is a victory for Lucas and Fox. The cast of Red Tails includes Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terrence Howard. Recently, the producers and cast were recently at the White House for special screening of the film, along with director Anthony Hemingway.

The weekend is + 31% and the primary reason is this original true tale of heroism and valor. It is a true American story.

Red Tails did well all over the country and across all demographics. The top grossing theaters were in New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta. Males made up 51% of the audience, and 66% were over the age of 25. Red Tails was soft in Canada, where Black-themed movies often under-perform.

Stephen Daldry’s post-9/11 drama Extremely Loud, starring Thomas Horn, Sandra Bullock and Tom Hanks, came in # 4 as it expanded Nationwide, grossing $10.5-M from 2,630 locations. The film, receiving an A- CinemaScore, has played in just 6 theaters since Christmas Day, and has now grossed $11.2-M domestically.

Universal’s Mark Wahlberg starrer Contraband out performed Extremely Loud in its 2nd weekend, grossing $12.2-M for a 10-Day domestic take of $46.1-M. Contraband fell 50%.

Steven Soderbergh’s upscale action film Haywire opened to $9-M after scoring a D+ CinemaScore.The Relativity Media pic, coming in # 5, cost a modest $23-M to make, with much of its budget covered through foreign presales.

Staring Gina Carano as a female covert operative, Haywire also stars Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Chaning Tatum and Michael Douglas. Males made up 55% of a ethnically diverse audience.

Haywire opens in a handful of foreign territories this weekend, including Russia and the UK, Alliance is distributing the movie in Canada.

At the awards box office, the Weinstein Co.’s The Artist, which continues to post wins, including the top PGA honor Saturday night, added more than 400 theaters to its run, bringing the total location count to 662. The Black-and-White silent film grossed $2.4-M to come in at # 17, and putting its domestic take at $12.1-M.

The Weinstein Co. also is handling Meryl Streep starrer The Iron lady, which stayed at #10 over the weekend, grossing $3.7-M from 1,076 locations for a take of $12.6-M.

Weekend/Domestic Box Office 19 to 22 January

Title/Weeks in Release/Studio/Theater Count/Three Day Weekend Total/Cume

1. Underworld: Awakening (1), Sony/3,078, $25.4-M

2. Red Tails (1), Fox/2,512, $19.1-M

3. Contraband (2), Universal/2,870, $12.2-M, $46.1-M

4. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (5), Warner Bros./2,630, $10.5-M, $11.2-M

5. Haywire (1), Relativity Media/2,439, $9-M

6. Beauty and the Beast (3D) (2), Disney/2,625, $23.5-M, $33.4-M

7. Joyful Noise (2), Warner Bros./Alcon/2,735, $6.1-M, $21.9-M

8. Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol (6), Paramount/2,519, $5.5-M, $197.3-M

9. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (6), Warner Bros./2,485, $4.8-M, $178.6-M

10. The Iron Lady (4), Weinstein Co./1,076, $3.7-M, $12.6-M.

Posted by Shayne Heffernan on Jan 22nd, 2012and filed underLatest News, Oil.You can follow any responses to this entry through theRSS 2.0Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.