Last weekend, the world was taken by surprise as Marvel’s Captain America: The First Avenger blew past the final Harry Potter film and made it to the #1 spot in its very first weekend. Since then, the film has grossed over $115 million here in the US and upwards of $170 million worldwide. Not bad for the best superhero film of the year (according to Rotten Tomatoes).
This weekend, Cap may have gotten knocked off the top spot and only made roughly $24 million, but the more interesting part is the battle between Universal’s Cowboys & Aliens and Sony’s The Smurfs. Both films opened with an estimated $36.2 million in the domestic, and while Smurfs may be the winner overseas, with a total of $40 million worldwide, that’s simply because it’s the only film to have a foreign opening.
Not a very strong opening for either film (unless you consider Smurfs to be a small film), but the true champion will be determined tomorrow afternoon when the official numbers arrive for the domestic box office.
Also opening this weekend, Crazy, Stupid, Love had a moderate opening with a total of $19.3 million, and hitting at the #5 spot. It had some pretty big competition going into a summer like this one.
Next weekend, audiences will be split again as it’s Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman in The Change-Up and Fox’s attempt at breathing life back into talking apes with the prequel Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Here’s to hoping we the fans are the true winners next weekend.
