Another surprisingly good opening on top of the $38 million earned last weekend by The Break-Up: John Moore’s The Omen , which was critically trashed and wasn’t expected to do more than $7 million or so on its demonic Tuesday opener (the 6.6.06 date being the whole reason it was made in the first place), took in $12.5 million yesterday. I saw it last night at the AMC 15 in Century City in a 280-seat house…maybe 30 or 35 seats unfilled. I studied the faces as best I could in the dark, but it seemed to be overwhelmingly an under-25 crowd . I saw maybe two or three couples in their late 20s and early 30s. It’s not a bad film, this thing. If you can get past the fact that it’s nearly a scene-by-scene re-do of the Richard Donner original, and if Liev Schreiber’s really weird nose and cheekbones aren’t too much of a bother, it’s a reasonably satisfying thriller that’s way above the level of stuff like Hostel. I said to myself about two-thirds of the way through, “This is better than the original.” It’s not looking for voltage from cheap or vulgar shock tricks, for the most part. It`delivers at least three good shock moments. (Maybe four.) The hell with Schreiber’s nose — he’s a superb actor with one of the great baritone voices in movies today. Julia Styles holds her own nicely, and Mia Farrow is eerily fine as little creep Damien’s evil nanny (plus she has a great death scene). The high-grade supporting cast, David Thewlis and Pete Postelthwaite especially — give it a classy veneer. And I couldn’t help but admire the craft in Jonathan Sela‘s photography and Marco Beltrami‘s newly scored music on top of Jerry goldsmith’s classic “Ave Santani” , which I loved hearing loud and strong from the big-screen speakers. The only element I didn’t like was Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick as Damien. Like Donner before him, Moore doesn’t seem to understand that it’s ten times more creepy for a supposedly demonic monster to look like a wholesome, free-spirited, upbeat atttitude kid — with just a hint of ugliness flickering somewhere deep in his eyes. Davey-Fitzpatrick, wearing a total of one expression through the entire film, is a dull little demon.