Updated Saturday 10:25 a.m. PT
Despite snow in the midwest and east, it's looking like a good weekend at the domestic box office -- "Underworld: Awakening" and "Red Tails" opened to solid numbers, and the weekend is poised to be up more 20 percent compared to the same weekend in 2011.
"Underworld: Awakening" -- the fourth in Screen Gems' popular vampire-and-werewolf franchise -- easily took the top spot at the box office Friday, grossing $9.4 million. "Red Tails," Fox's story about World War II's Tuskegee Airmen, opened to second place, grossing $6 million on Friday.
Screen Gems' movie is on track to take $24 million over the weekend. Fox's is looking at $17.8 million.
Both those movies earned an "A-" score from the audience polling firm Cinemascore.
But Relativity's entry, the Steven Soderbergh-directed "Haywire" received a rare and low "D+."
Given the movie's 82 percent Rotten Tomatoes rating and solid cast -- it includes Michael Douglas, Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Antonio Banderas, Channing Tatum and Mixed Martial Artist Gina Carano -- the low score is a surprise.
"Haywire" took $3 million on Friday and is on track to just exceed studio projections for the weekend. That would put it at No. 5 for the weekend.
Universal's "Contraband," last week's top movie, grossed $3.7 million on Friday, making it the No. 3 movie this weekend. The Warner Bros. 911 movie "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close," which had been in limited release, opened wide to $3.2 million Friday, putting it No. 4 at the box office.
"Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" received an "A-" Cinemascore and is expected to take around $9.3 million for the weekend.
Earlier:
In this weekend’s battle between two butt-kicking women for the box office supremacy, the advantage should go to the vampire.
Kate Beckinsale’s "Underworld: Awakening" is expected to triumph over Relativity’s "Haywire," starring Mixed Martial Arts badass Gina Carano as a black ops superagent-gone-rogue, and the rest of the box-office competition, which includes Fox’s "Red Tails," about African American pilots during World War II, and an expansion of Warners’ “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” 9-11 drama.
With only a handful of female-driven action films opening in any given year, it's unusual to see two of them opening against each other. The double dose had at least one rival perplexed. "I don't get it," one veteran producer told TheWrap Thursday.
Sony and Relativity, however, believe their films can each find an audience.
But in terms of weekend bragging rights, it’s all but certain that Sony’s fourth “Underworld” will come out on top at the domestic box office. The first "Underworld" movie, in 2003, opened to $21.8 million. The second and third, in January 2006 and January 2009, respectively, opened to $26.9 million and $20.8 million.
Sony figures "Underworld," will take $20 million to $22 million -- in line with outside expectations.
