Cowboys & Aliens,' 'Smurfs' Top Box Office In Big Overall Weekend

8/1/2011 11:32 AM ET

(RTTNews) - Though none of the new releases put up an enormous opening total, the box office as a whole did very well, as five movies earned at least $19 million or more this weekend. "Cowboys & Aliens" and "The Smurfs" both pulled in $36.20 million according to early studio estimates, though "Smurfs" finished with a weekend-high of $10,663 per venue and looks to be in better shape than "Cowboys." PG-13 comedy "Crazy, Stupid, Love" also landed in the top five with a decent $19.30 million. Meanwhile, "Captain America: The First Avenger" saw a big slip from its chart-topping opening and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" soared past $300 million domestically and became the first "Potter" release to cross $1 billion worldwide.

With a bevy of PG-13 action releases, "Cowboys & Aliens" struggled to get off the ground and ended up with one of the least impressive opening totals for a big-budget action release this summer. "Cowboys & Aliens" cost $163 million to produce yet made less than $10,000 per site, which is not a good sign moving forward for the Universal distribution.
As we move into August, the box office also tends to slow down and "Cowboys & Aliens" will have fresh competition next weekend from "Rise of the Planet of the Apes." All things considered, it looks like "Cowboys" will end up one of the bigger commercial disappointments this year and might finish with numbers similar to "Green Lantern."
But things look a little better for "The Smurfs," which has no family competition on the horizon and put up a solid $36.20 million at 3,395 venues - 355 less than "Cowboys & Aliens." It's unlikely that "The Smurfs" will really take off in the next couple of weeks, but it should still post solid numbers all the way up until kids head back to school in late August/early September. Though "Smurfs" won't put up a huge overall total, it might finish as one of the more commercially successful animated releases of the summer.
Also hitting theaters this weekend was Steve Carell's "Crazy, Stupid, Love," which grossed a solid $19.30 million according to early studio estimates. "Crazy, Stupid, Love" should continue to play well with date audiences for a few weekends and will likely land in the $70 to $80 million domestic range, which will be a nice total for a PG-13 comedy released at 3,020 total venues.
As the top new releases got off to mild starts, "Harry Potter" continued to rack up big numbers across the globe. With $1.01 billion in worldwide receipts now, the final "Potter" is the only one in the series to cross the $1 billion mark and it should easily surpass the $1.03 billion worldwide that "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" made, which will make it the top grossing movie of 2011 so far.
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