Corona | Coming Attractions

Underworld Awakening became the new number one movie at the box office this weekend, giving its star and studio 25 million reasons to believe that they have another Resident Evil-like horror franchise that they can go to for the foreseeable future.

Kate Beckinsale returned to the series to once again play the vampire warrior Selene. Audiences reacted favorably to that business move by spending $25.4 million dollars of their hard-earned money to see the four flick in the Underworld series. Awakening's opening was the second-highest after 2006's Underworld: Awakening which scored just $1.2 million more in its opening weekend before capping out at $62 mil domestic.

Red Tails also had a great opening weekend. The Lucasfilm-produced story about the first all-black fighter pilot squadron in World War II, Red Tails took to the air with $19.1 million.

Last week's #1, Contraband, tumbled down two spots with $12.2m in new ticket sales (and currently has a domestic total of $46.1m.)

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close expanded into wide release and subsequently saw its gross skyrocket. The Tom Hanks/Sandra Bullock weeper took in $10.5m, greatly adding to its present day gross of $11.2m.

Gina Carano doesn't appear to have much recognition outside of her MMA core fanbase as her action star debut, Haywire, could only muscle up a $9 million dollar opening at #5.

Falling from #2 to #6 is Disney's 3D version of Beauty and the Beast ($8.5m new, $33.3m total.)

Warner Bros. Joyful Noise drops three spots to #7 this week ($6.0m new, $21.9m total).

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol has the biggest fall this week in the top ten, descending from #3 last week to #8 this week. Still, with its new $5.5m in receipts added to its combined six week gross of $197m, Ghost Protocol is less than $17 million dollars away from beating the series' highest-grosser to date, the second M:I. Presently, it's now the second-highest in the series, and is $11 million dollars away from becoming the #1 in the franchise's worldwide theatrical box office.

Finishing off the top ten we have Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows down four spots to #9 ($4.8m new, $178.6 million dollars total) and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is at #10 ($3.7m new, $94.7m total.)