Weekend Box Office: January 20 - 22

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  Underworld Awakening - $25.3 million

2.  Red Tails - $18.7 million

3.  Contraband - $12 million

4.  Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - $10 million

5.  Beauty and the Beast 3D - $8.7 million

6.  Haywire - $8.4 million

7.  Joyful Noise - $5.9 million

8.  Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol - $5.5 million

9.  Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows - $4.5 million

10.  The Iron Lady - $3.6 million

As expected, Underworld Awakening took the top spot  this weekend, as the 2012 box office continues to put up surprisingly impressive numbers at the start of the new year.  Audiences proved that they really love their Underworld movies when Kate Beckinsale stars in them, as this movie opened much better than the Beckinsale-less Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, which opened with $20.8 million in 2009.  With a solid opening and an A- Cinemascore rating, odds are good we haven't seen the last of the Underworld series.

The other winner this weekend was Red Tails, which opened very well with $18.7 million.  The George Lucas-produced tale of the Tuskegee Airmen was popular with audiences, who gave it a perfect A+ Cinemascore rating.  If word-of-mouth propels this movie through the next few weeks, Lucas, who financed this film on his own, may even have his chance to thumb his nose at the studios who insisted no one wanted to see this film. 

Mark Wahlberg's action thriller Contraband had decent hold in its second weekend with $12 million.  Domestically, the film has earned $45.9 million so far.

This weekend also asked audiences if they were ready for a 9/11-themed film.  The answer was...not so much, as Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close disappointed with just $10 million, marking one of the lowest openings for both Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock.  Mostly poor reviews certainly didn't help this movie either.

The 3D incarnation of Beauty and the Beast continued to do well this weekend with $8.7 million.  It's not doing the blockbuster business that the The Lion King's 3D re-release did last fall...but this being one of those Disney princess movie (and arguably the best of them) that's already out on 3D blu-ray, it's still doing well enough.

At least it's doing better than Haywire, which opened with opened in fifth place with $8.4 million and earned an ugly D+ Cinemascore rating, which doesn't bode well for its box office run.

Next weekend sees Liam Neeson doing his wilderness-badass thing in The Grey, and Sam Worthington adds to his action movie cred with Man on a Ledge.  Also, with the Oscar nominations coming out tomorrow, there are still lots of good movies like The Artist and The Descendants in theaters for those of you who aren't into the action movie thing.  Especially The Artist - definitely go see that one.