'Awakening' slays weekend B.O.

'Underworld Awakening'Year-to-date domestic box office continues to outperform 2011 totals, with the newest market leader, Sony-Screen Gems' "Underworld: Awakening," scoring an estimated three-day bow of $25.4 million."Underworld," which also tallied an estimated $13.4 million from 36 day-and-date overseas territories, beat the top Stateside player this time last year: Paramount's "No Strings Attached" debuted with $19.7 million domestically."We're in really good shape - not just domestically, but worldwide, as well," said Sony distribution exec Rory Bruer. "Underworld" was budgeted for a reported $70 million.This weekend, overall domestic box office was up a whopping 32% over 2011's comparable frame.Helping push the needle, Fox's $19.1 million-grossing No. 2 title, "Red Tails," did better than 2011's second-place pic, "The Green Hornet," which tallied $17.7 million in its soph sesh. "Red Tails" far exceeded industry expectations; pic was widely expected to bow at just north of $10 million.Playing to expectations, Warner Bros.' "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" scored $10.5 million from an expanded 2,630 Stateside runs, while Relativity Media's debut title "Haywire" bagged an estimated $9 million through Sunday. "Extremely Loud" has cumed $11.2 million domestically.At the specialty B.O., meanwhile, Fox Searchlight's Golden Globes-winning drama "The Descendants" passed the $50 million Stateside mark, boosted by a $2.5 million weekend perf. That reps a 17% increase over last weekend with 100 fewer locations.The Weinstein Co. broadened its Globes-feted pair, "The Iron Lady" and "The Artist," grossing an estimated $3.7 million and $2.4 million, respectively. "Iron Lady," which screened at 1,076 playdates, reached $12.6 million domestically; "The Artist" has cumed $12.1 million from almost half the locations (662). Contact Andrew Stewart at andrew.stewart@variety.com