The original "Underworld" wasn't a well received movie with critics, especially by the horror genre fans who were pretty harsh on the film. Nevertheless the original opened to an impressive $21.8 million weekend haul, good enough to greenlight a sequel.
Now the second film is out - "Underworld: Evolution" which has done even worse with the critics (Rotten Tomatoes indicates "Underworld" scored a 4.7/10 average score, whereas "Underworld Evolution" managed a 3.8/10), so not surprisingly its done even better - raking in an strong $27.6 million debut - easily dominating the Top Ten this week.
Other newcomers this week didn't fare so well - Christian pic "End of the Spear" and limited Albert Brooks comedy release "Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World" didn't really score with audiences in their respective arenas. Whilst Terrence Malick's shortened cut of "The New World" didn't exactly break out in its wide expansion, both "Match Point" and "Transamerica" did decent business in their move into more theatres.
Yet again though "Brokeback Mountain" was the talk of the day on the limited release front, the film finally cracking the 1000 theatre mark (1,196 theatres) to score a $7.8 million taking in its seventh week. Focus is set to add another 250 theatres to the run next week, an ever bigger count is expected after the Oscar nominations January 31st.
Finally, last week's openers held better than expected, most notably CG comedy "Hoodwinked" which fell a mere 11% from its opening weekend haul. Both Jim Carrey comedy "Fun With Dick and Jane" and Johnny Cash biopic "Walk the Line" broke the $100 million mark.
