Weekend Receipts: Soaring Smurfs, Slumping Cowboys Locked in Photo Finish

One of the most congested weekends of the summer delivered no shortage of shock and awe to Hollywood, with expensive flops-in-the-making facing off against surprisingly formidable blue forest creatures recycled from the '80s. Their fierce battle is too close to call as weekend numbers emerge, but that doesn't mean the real winner isn't clear. Your Weekend Receipts are here.

1. [tie] The Smurfs

Gross: $36,200,000 (new)

Screens: 3,395 (PSA: $10,663)

Weeks: 1

While many box-office wonks and other industry observers will no doubt propose various and sundry theories as to how an '80s cartoon updating with no major movie stars could keep up with (and possibly surpass) a mega-budget graphic-novel tentpole starring Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford, I think the truth is clear: Aliens are cool, but a flow chart is cooler.

1. [tie] Cowboys & Aliens

Gross: $36,200,000 (new)

Screens: 3,750 (PSA: $9,653)

Weeks: 1

Hate to say I told you so, DreamWorks, but come on: You've got huge stars. Sell them. Time to place bets on which will earn more (or less, if that's how we're measuring): C&A or Green Lantern?

3. Captain America: First Avenger

Gross: $24,905,000 ($116,772,000)

Screens: 3,715 (PSA: $6,704)

Weeks: 2 (change: -61.7%)

Not a terrible second week at all for the Marvel hero, particularly considering the clutter of new releases around it and its continuing habitation in the long shadow of Harry Potter. The real fun will come in the days ahead, as figures roll in from international markets including the UK, Russia, Australia, India and elsewhere. If Captain America can make it there, he can make it anywhere.

4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Gross: $21,925,000 ($318,460,000)

Screens: 4,145 (PSA: $5,290)

Weeks: 3 (change: -53.8%)

As the final Potter installment approaches a billion-dollar gross worldwide, you just know an executive crew at Warner Bros. is contemplating how to keep some vestige of the franchise going. Maybe a Severus Snape flick? Being Tom Felton? Rupert Grint is in!

5. Crazy, Stupid, Love.

Gross: $19,300,000 (new)

Screens: 3,020 (PSA: $6,391)

Weeks: 1

Not a bad showing at all, but again, this would have killed in August. Watch its legs, assuming The Change-Up doesn't move in and kick them out from under it.

[Numbers via Box Office Mojo]