I thought we were over this.

Underworld Awakening, the fourth, excuse me, FOURTH film in the Underworld series, topped the US box office this weekend with $25m. That's a far cry from its reported budget of $70m, but the opening ranks as the second-highest for the nine-year-old series. I guess Kate Beckinsale's family will never go hungry.

The film's success should be no surprise, however, because this undead genre (I'm including vampires and zombies on account of them both being similarly lifeless) has been printing movie studios money for years. And, by the looks of it, they will continue doing so for at least the next 12 months. I counted seven zombie and two vampire films that are scheduled to be released this year, and while some star the likes of Corey Feldman and Eddie Furlong, others have A-listers Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt behind them. And even though we all may want to, it's impossible to forget The Twilight Saga.

Trends come and go, but undead films are showing no signs of slowing. I think they may have even settled permanently between romantic comedy and courtroom drama in the pantheon of Great American Movie Genres.

Yep, undead films will probably be topping the box office for the foreseeable future, or at least until we're all vampires, at which point "human buddy cop" movies will be everywhere.

[Image via Shutterstock]