Weekend Box Office: 'Cowboys and Aliens' in Dead Heat with 'The Smurfs'

What the Smurf is going on here? It seemed that the star-studded, action-heavy "Cowboys and Aliens" would be the clear choice to win the weekend at the box office, but the badly-reviewed "The Smurfs" has performed just as well despite critical panning. So who won out? Was it the rugged cowboys or the little blue guys (and one blue girl)?

The answer is neither of them. As of today, the box office race is a dead heat, with the difference in earning between "Cowboys and Aliens" and "The Smurfs" too close to call until the Monday actuals. For now, it's a tie!

Both "Cowboys and Aliens" and "The Smurfs" ended up bringing in an estimated $32.6 million over the weekend after "Smurfs" had the stronger Friday and "Cowboys" had the stronger Saturday. It will be up to the Sunday earnings to determine who emerges victorious.

The number is a bad one for "Cowboys and Aliens," which was expected to earn closer to $45 million over the first weekend. For it to have landed about $12.5M short of that target in the first weekend is a bad sign for two reasons: one, the budget for the film is reportedly around $160M, and two, the reviews have been less than stellar with a 44% on Rotten Tomatoes which means it's not likely to keep its numbers up long.

The $32.5 million is good for "The Smurfs," however, which was expected to open at around $25 million. It also means that the two already-announced sequels are more than likely to be made. Yes, that's right: "The Smurfs" is going to be a trilogy.

Third place was much more clear, with "Captain America: The First Avenger" taking the spot with $24.9 million in its second weekend. That puts its cumulative domestic total at about $117 million, which is just a couple mil below where "Thor" was at this point. Marvel and Paramount continue their success with these movies, and it will only improve with the release of "The Avengers" next year.

Fourth place went to "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2," which drew in another $21.9 million. That's another very sharp drop for "HP7-2" (about 54% after last weekend's 72%), so it looks like it might be quite as record-shattering over the long run as expected. But the fervor from fans wanting to see the movie as soon as possible still amounted to that record-breaking opening weekend, which puts the domestic cume for the movie at $318.4 million after only three weeks.

Fifth place went to another new release, "Crazy, Stupid, Love." The romantic dramedy turned out to be one of the best-reviewed new movies of the weekend with a 74% on Rotten Tomatoes which, along with the strong cast including Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone and Julianne Moore, took the movie to a $19.3 million opening weekend.

1. "Cowboys and Aliens" - $32.6 million
2. "The Smurfs" - $32.6 million (tied with 1st)
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