David Humphreys   Jan 23, 2012 7 Comments

2012_underworld_awakening_001

Both Haywire and Underworld: Awakening are action movies that feature a strong female lead character, but apart from that, the two movies have little in common. Haywire received mostly rave reviews; Underworld wasn't even screened for critics. Haywire offered audiences something they rarely ever see in movies (realistic action scenes presented in a coherent way); Underworld offered audiences something they were already extremely familiar with (vampires vs. werewolves). Haywire didn't go over very well with non-film critics, earning a D+ Cinemascore rating from regular audiences; Underworld, meanwhile, was deemed to be slightly better than The Social Network and Inception by regular audiences, who awarded it a Cinemascore of A-.

It wasn't too surprising then that Haywire performed poorly at the box office, earning just $9 million, while Underworld finished in first place at the box office with $25 million.

1 . Underworld: Awakening  $25.4M    

Thanks to everyone who bought a ticket to this, next year we'll be faced with Underworld: Fall of the Lycans, Underworld: The Lycans Rise Again, and at least one Underworld/Twilight crossover.

2. Red Tails  $19.1M

When he was interviewed on The Daily Show, George Lucas described how he was forced to finance Red Tails out of his own pocket due to a complete lack of interest from all of the other studios. It looks like this worked out for the best. Red Tails will probably make Lucas slightly richer than he already is.

3. Contraband  $12.2M

January has been a good month for Kate Beckinsale. Had she only figured out a way to appear in Red Tails, she would've been the only actress in history to star in each of the week's top three movies.

4. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close  $10.5M

This is the least attended Sandra Bullock movie of the last 15 years and the least attended Tom Hanks movie of the last 20 years.

5. Haywire  $9M  

As we learned earlier from Drive, mainstream audiences absolutely despise critically-acclaimed, vaguely artistic action movies. At this point, Steven Soderbergh must be seriously toying with the idea of making Ocean's 14 3D: Vampires vs. Werewolves.  

6. Beauty and the Beast  $8.56M

Not quite as impressive as what the 3D re-release of The Lion King brought in, but still, Disney hasn't done too badly for itself.

For the complete box office tally, visit Box Office Mojo.

: 9:05 AM
7 Comments

Love the series!!

Just saw Underworld Awakening tonight. I was disappointed. The action wasn't even that good let alone the weak storyline.

I like the Underworld movies. So much better than the Twilight series. I don't like any of those movies at all. Underworld has awesome vampires and werewolves. I'm definitely going to see the 4th movie. The only thing that turns me off a little is that they don't give you the choice to see it in 3D or regular 2D. It's 3D or nothing. Why do so many movies have to be 3D these days. I have a hard time watching them, especially with the special glasses over my regualar glasses. It hurts my eyes after a while. Anyways, I'll still be watching it because I do want to see it. I'll have to suck it up. And I might go see Haywire if I get a chance within the next couple of weeks. We'll see.

I like the underworld movies. They're B-movies with A-movie budgets, and make no apologies for it. Also, I'd way rather see the Underworld movies do well as "the vampire franchise" instead of twitlight.

Who wrote this "review", Gina Carona's mom? Deal with it.

Ray..EXACTLY! for some reason critics like to overthink why stuff like Underworld does well. It's a movie targeted at a certain demographic. Kate in leather,with martial arts,guns,explosions and actual COOL werewolves and vanpires. Prtty much all i could want in a fun popcorn movie on a tuesday night. on a side note, i will still probably still catch haywire but it had almost no advertising, i didn't even know it had opened yet........oh yeah to the writer of this, Drive was not an "action" movie in any way more like a slow,poorly witten snoozefest.

Gee, not much of a wonder why Underworld did well; can we all say "Kate Beckinsale in skin tight leather"? Thats right say it with me now, sex sells... Not to much to think about there - but a whole lot to fantasize about.

As for Haywire - I'd like to go see it, but perhaps you could put in a good word with Cineplex, and Odeon and those other cinematic vendors that thier prices are way to high and not worth paying except for the very best of movies. And I'm not talking about War horse...

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