CinemaNerdz

Weekend Box-Office: The Smurfs and Cowboys & Aliens Tied?

Seth Paul

It’s one thing for a film to take the top spot, but two films at the same time? Newcomers Cowboys & Aliens and The Smurfs both took the estimated top spot this weekend, earning approximately $36.2 million each…however, with a higher average at a smaller number of theaters and 3-D ticket sales, The Smurfs may end up being the big winner once the final numbers are counted. On the minus side, the much anticipated Cowboys & Aliens, with its weighty $163 million price tag, is getting low reviews…not quite as low as The Smurfs, but definitely bad enough to make the Spielberg-produced hit a disappointment compared to the Transformers franchise.

Speaking of which, Transformers: Dark of the Moon fell four spots to 8th this week earning $5.8 million. Though this marks the film’s fifth week at the box office, it has yet to break the billion-dollar worldwide barrier…which this week’s fourth-place finisher (with $21.9 million) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 managed to pull off in only three weeks. It still has yet to top Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides as the year’s top earner, but both films seem prepared to accomplish that task.

Third place finisher Captain America: The First Avenger had a rough weekend, earning only $24.9 million compared to its first-place finish last week, but unlike recent competitor Green Lantern, the latest Marvel-inspired superhero flick still looks like it will finish its run as a money maker, having almost earned back its $140 million budget in only two weeks. In fifth place, the Steve Carell comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love debuted to decent reviews, if somewhat disappointing box office; with no budget data available, its $19.3 million seems low for a film with the kind of star power it boasts, especially when compared to the sixth and seventh place films, Friends with Benefits ($9.3 million) and Horrible Bosses ($7.1 million). While Friends may not be a runaway success, its published budget shows it to be in the black while Bosses has nearly made $100 million domestically.

At the bottom of the Top 10 are Zookeeper and Cars 2 look to be suffering a bit on the domestic front; Zookeeper’s weekend take was only $4.2 million and Cars 2 just $2.3 million, with neither having shown profit domestically. But, both films have gotten a surprising boost from overseas, Zookeeper picking up nearly $40 in worldwide sales alone, and Cars 2 a whopping $217 million in the worldwide market. All told, both films have done relatively well overall, despite their sluggish performance stateside.

Weekend Box-Office (July 29 – July 31)

  1. The Smurfs…$36.2 million
  2. Cowboys & Aliens…$36.2 million
  3. Captain America: The First Avenger…$24.9 million
  4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2…$21.9 million
  5. Crazy, Stupid, Love…$19.3 million
  6. Friends with Benefits…$9.3 million
  7. Horrible Bosses…$7.1 million
  8. Transformers: Dark of the Moon…$5.8 million
  9. Zookeeper…$4.2 million
  10. Cars 2…$2.3 million

Seth Paul

When not failing to write novels and screenplays, box-office guru Seth writes humorous comedy tracks for films under the name "The One Man Band" that can be found at Rifftrax.com. Although, he has recently succeeded in writing the novella "Jack Alan and the Case of the Not-Exactly Rocket Scientists," available as an eBook on Amazon. He is also the English voice of Zak in "Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space."
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