New Movies January 6: 'Underworld,' 'Hidden Figures,' and 'A Monster Calls'

This weekend is the first full weekend of the new year, and the 2017 movie year will get rolling in earnest after a couple of very quiet weekends for new movies. The new year will start off modestly, though, with new releases that might not be able to outpace the hold-overs.

The first, and probably the biggest, of the week's new movies is Underworld: Blood Wars, the fifth installment in the horror/fantasy franchise starring Kate Beckinsale. Expect this one to earn somewhere in the vicinity of $15 to $20 million, which may be enough to knock Rogue One: A Star Wars Story out of the top spot. Or it may not.

The week's second new wide release is Hidden Figures, a based-on-a-true-story drama about female African-American mathematicians working for NASA's space programs in the 1960s. This one began playing in a few theaters on Christmas Day, but it goes into wide release this week. It's an Oscar contender, but that rarely translates into big box office, at least not until the nominations are announced.

The week's final new wide release is A Monster Calls, a fantasy drama based on a children's book. This one is also expanding this week after going into limited release in December. It features Felicity Jones, who also stars in Rogue One, but this version of Jones isn't going to be significant competition for the other one.