"Omen" debut is box office blessing for Fox

LOS ANGELES - Don't tell Satan, but apparently 666 is a good number -- at least it was for Twentieth Century Fox and its new movie, "The Omen."

Fox said the remake about a boy who is a spawn of the devil opened to a record-setting $12,633,666 at U.S. box offices -- the most money collected by movie with a Tuesday debut.

Fox deliberately opened "The Omen" on June 6, 2006 and devised an advertising campaign around that date -- 6-6-06. The number, 666, is referred to in Christianity as the mark of the devil, and in "The Omen," 5 year-old Damien Thorn has that number branded on him.

The $12.63 million checks out as the highest-grossing Tuesday debut. Although some might question whether the last three digits of the gross were 666 -- Fox says it was.

Boxofficemojo.com, which charts box office openings, said that the previous champ for a Tuesday opening was boxing film, "Ali," which collected $10.2 million on Christmas day in 2001.

In 1996, adventure flick "Independence Day" raked in $11.1 million in Tuesday night sneak previews, but its official debut fell on the subsequent Wednesday.

Tuesday debuts are rare for a Hollywood film. Most open on Friday and sometimes on Wednesday ahead of a long, holiday weekend. The highest single-day opening gross was last year's "?Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith" with $50 million on a Thursday.

"The Omen" that screened in 1976 starred Gregory Peck and Lee Remick and won an Oscar for best movie score. It spawned two sequels of its own.

Fox is a division of media company News Corp.