'Underworld Awakening' Leads at the Box Office January 22, 2012, 12:50 pm This is why Hollywood keeps churning out sequels: The fourth movie in Sony's "Underworld" vampire series, "Underworld Awakening," was an easy No. 1 at the North American box office over the weekend, taking in about $25.4 million despite winter storms that kept business light in parts of the United States. Solid ticket sales for "Underworld Awakening" were fueled by turnout for higher-priced Imax screens. Even so, this 3-D movie will need to perform well overseas to justify its cost of about $70 million, sharply higher than the budget for "Underworld: Rise of the Lycans" in 2009. "Red Tails," a period action drama inspired by the Tuskegee airmen, finished a surprisingly strong second, with an estimated $19.1 million in ticket revenue, according to Hollywood.com, which compiles box-office data. The movie was also expensive: George Lucas spent $58 million to make "Red Tails" and spent another $35 million to market it, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "Contraband" (Universal) was third, taking in about $12.2 million for a two-week total of $46.1 million. Expanding nationwide after four weeks of limited screenings designed to create buzz, the post-9/11 drama "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" (Warner Brothers) was fourth, selling an estimated $10.5 million in tickets. Steven Soderbergh's "Haywire" (Relativity Media) was fifth, with $9 million in revenue; negative word of mouth may have hurt this film, which got a D-plus score in exit polls. Also notable: Disney's "Beauty and the Beast 3-D" fell sharply in its second weekend to sixth place, taking in $8.6 million for a two-week total of $33.4 million.