In a battle between tiny blue cartoon creatures and, well, cowboys and aliens, it’s a draw! Both movies each made about $36.2 million, with The Smurfs exceeding expectations. (Because it’s a CGI Smurfs movie, Neil Patrick Harris notwithstanding.) However, the Smurfs’ success kind of spells failure for Cowboys & Aliens, “to the point of tanking,” according to Deadline. And now Sony is all “See? People like the Smurfs! We knew this!” The lesson? Don’t underestimate the power of kids at the box office. Again, something we probably knew.
While $36.2 million is hardly a blockbuster success, the fact that Universal put out a movie with Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig, and Olivia Wilde that was called “Cowboys & Aliens” — because honestly, what more do you want from a movie? — and it still underperformed has left people asking a lot of questions. But not The Smurfs people. Because the Smurfs have been around forever, and the reason for that is because people like Smurfs:
“I don’t know why people underestimated this movie to such a degree. We were always very bullish on it,” Sony distribution President Rory Bruer said. “It has a huge following and not just with kids — there’s a nostalgia factor and a cool factor that is kind of making the film resonate for us.”
There it is, everyone: The Smurfs are cool! They’re Smurfing cool!
But now, Cowboys & Aliens is being compared to Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, another Universal release based on a comic/graphic novel that premiered at Comic Con and went on to an underwhelming box office performance. (Though now, it has a devoted cult following, so can it really be called a failure?) Or maybe this was a case of super familiar characters vs. mostly unfamiliar characters (being played by very familiar people). In which case, the Smurfs will win the day, easily.
Meanwhile, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 crossed the $1 billion mark. Again: familiar characters.
(Box Office Mojo and Deadline via The Beat)
