'Smurfs,' 'Cowboys & Aliens' tie at box office
Tra-la-la-la-la-la — the animated little blue guys overcome projections, equaling the western / sci-fi mash-up's $36.2-million opening weekend.
In a surprise, “The Smurfs” tie "Cowboys & Aliens" at the box office this weekend. "Cowboys & Aliens" had the heft of two popular genres going for it.
The film, one of the most expensive movies to be released this year, also boasted two A-list actors in veterans Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig. And it had two Hollywood bigwigs behind the camera — Steven Spielberg as executive producer and "Iron Man's" Jon Favreau as director, who in recent weeks has been exhaustively promoting the movie. And it was received well by the fanboy audience at Comic-Con International in San Diego, where it premiered late last month.
But rather than opening to twice the success, the film had disappointing ticket sales this weekend. In a surprise, "The Smurfs" — a critically panned live-action/computer-animated hybrid movie based on characters that originated more than 50 years ago — grossed far more than pre-release polling had indicated. As a result, on Sunday the studios behind the pictures estimated that each film would collect $36.2 million domestically by weekend's end. Meanwhile, the weekend's other new wide release, the adult romantic comedy "Crazy, Stupid, Love," brought in a decent $19.3 million.
Nikki Rocco, the domestic distribution president for Universal Pictures — which released "Cowboys" — said the film was a "unique action movie with a bold concept and a great pedigree of filmmakers."
"We took a shot with them to bring this movie to market," she explained.
The film's soft opening is no doubt a letdown for Universal as well as the picture's other financial packers, DreamWorks and Relativity Media, who collectively spent about $163 million to produce the movie.
"Cowboys," which is based on a little-read graphic novel about an alien invasion in the Old West, resonated most with an older crowd, as 63% of the audience was over the age of 30. Those who saw the film — 53% of whom were male — gave it an average grade of B, according to market research firm CinemaScore.
The movie performed about as well on its first weekend as "Super 8," one of the only other major studio releases to come out this summer with a largely original concept. That J.J. Abrams-directed film opened to $35.5 million in June and has since grossed $181.2 million worldwide, but its production budget was far less, topping out at about $50 million.
Meanwhile, "The Smurfs," which features a gaggle of diminutive blue cartoon characters, now seems primed to follow in the footsteps of Fox's hugely successful "Alvin and the Chipmunks" series, which also stars live actors alongside animated characters. The most recent film in that franchise, "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel," opened to $48.9 million domestically in 2009 and went on to gross $443.1 million worldwide. "The Smurfs" is already off to a better start than two similar films that were released in 2010, "Yogi Bear" and "Marmaduke," both of which opened to less than $17 million.
"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."
Audiences who saw "The Smurfs" this weekend loved it, assigning the PG-rated film an average grade of A-minus. Not surprisingly, the movie — which cost about $110 million to produce — appealed mostly to a family audience, as 65% of the crowd was composed of parents with their children. The film didn't sell an overwhelming number of 3-D tickets, with about 45% of the crowd opting to see the film in the pricier format.
The Smurfs, originally conceived by a Belgian comic-book artist in 1958, rose to popularity stateside when they became the subject of a 1980s Saturday morning cartoon program. To make sure younger audiences were familiar with the older property, Sony teamed up with a handful of marketing partners including McDonald's, Stauffer's, Post and Toys R Us to advertise the movie. (McDonald's featured Smurfs on its Happy Meals worldwide.)
Overseas, the film opened this weekend in seven foreign markets and collected $4.4 million. The movie performed best in Spain, where it grossed $3.9 million, marking the eighth-biggest opening of the year in that nation.
"Crazy, Stupid, Love," in which a middle-aged man played by Steve Carell is taught how to pick up women after his wife leaves him, cost Warner Bros. about $45 million to make. The film, which also stars Ryan Gosling and has received largely positive reviews, was given an average grade of B-plus by those who saw it. The movie appealed most to a largely older crowd, as 71% of the audience was 25 or above.
"There's always a lack of films toward the end of the summer for an older audience," said Dan Fellman, president of domestic distribution for Warner Bros. "We always felt like they were waiting for something good to come out — and obviously, they were waiting."
The Smurfs Review: Smurf On Ahead, Nothing To Smurf Here
The Smurfs cartoons were a daily presence in my life growing up. It originally aired from 1981-1989 with 420 episodes and I would watch many of these every day, especially on weekends and summer vacation. Looking back, its no wonder that my parents never watched this with me because of the ubiquitous “La la la lala lalalala,” that I’m sure would drive any adult a little nuts.
The Smurfs are magically transported to New York City via a portal on the day of the Blue Moon festival. Clumsy Smurf (Anton Yelchin) accidentally leads Gargamel and his cat Azrael into the hidden Smurf village wherein chaos ensues after the sorcerer begins to start destroying their homes while trying to capture the tiny little blue men. Clumsy, being Clumsy, gets separated from the rest of the Smurfs causing Papa (Jonathan Winters), Smurfette (Katy Perry), Grouchy (George Lopez), Brainy (Fred Armisen) and Gutsy (Alan Cumming) to go after him. In New York, they meet Patrick (Neil Patrick Harris) and Grace Winslow (Jayma Mays), a young couple expecting their first child. Patrick works for a cosmetic company headed by Odile (Sofia Vergara), and recently has a trial promotion as the Vice President of marketing. If he can please Odile then he gets to keep the job. Of course that isn’t easy with the Smurfs involved. They are well meaning little blue creatures but incredibly out of place in this modern world. Still as they try to find their way back home and stop Gargamel from capturing them and stealing their Smurf essence, audiences are imparted with some important lessons.
The 2011 film doesn’t quite pack the same entertainment punch as cartoon did my five-year-old self saw it back in the day, but if you are in that age group now and watched it this opening weekend you probably enjoyed yourself. I’ll admit that the physical comedy of the movie were the parts where I laughed with the five, seven, and ten year olds who were in the theater with me. Hank Azaria, who plays Gargamel the dimwitted sorcerer hunting for Smurfs, took the brunt of the falls, hits, tosses, and crashes. Azaria did a spot on job in his portrayal of Gargamel’s demeanor and movement, but I just couldn’t get over the voice. Of course there was no way it could be the same, but it just kept reminding me that it was Azaria playing Gargamel, not really Gargamel come to life. That being said, I’m biased and I’m sure the kids enjoyed it.
Harris and Mays gave decent performances, but to be honest I kept feeling like I was watching an episode of Glee and soon the two actors would burst into spontaneous singing. Mays plays Emma Pillsbury on the hit show and Harris guested as Bryan Ryan (he won an Emmy for outstanding guest actor in a comedy series for this role).
The voice acting caught me by surprise, as I had no idea that Lopez was playing Grouchy, which was quite fitting. My favorite had to be Cumming as Gutsy because for one I couldn’t recognize his voice and secondly, he had the best lines.
Still my favorite character in the entire film has to be Azrael the cat. It was the best comic relief and had the funniest expressions. Kudos to the voice actor, CGI team, and the animal trainer!
Bottom line – parents, your kids will enjoy it and children of the eighties I say stick to the cartoons.
Pictures Courtesy of Sony Pictures Animation
La la: Smurfs movie slammed, goes #1 w/Neil Patrick Harris, Katy Perry
Updated to include more detail regarding critical Smurfs reviews
La la la la la la, the Smurfs Movie is tied for #1 at the box office despite the vast majority of professional reviews being negative, most of which have ranged from the “so bad it’s kind of watchable” to “so bad it’s terrible” kind of critical disdain. So what saved the movie? Two things: one is the real-world presence Neil Patrick Harris. That’s right, the former child actor one seemingly destined to be forever known as Doogie Howser has quietly transformed himself into one of our better actors in his adulthood. The other is the virtual presence of Katy Perry, the voice of Smurfette, who breathes an appropriate amount of ladyness into the lone female Smurf. And that’s a good thing, because the male Smurfs in the movie are just plain annoying.
But if there’s something which works about this movie, it’s probably that viewers can hang in there vicariously through NPH as he finds the Smurf characters to be as annoying as the audience does. It’s a tough day when characters which in their original incarnations were such caricatures that they had stereotypical names more obvious than that of the Seven Dwarfs, and yet these characters have somehow managed to dissolve further into caricature (past the threshold of no return) in their movie incarnations. Oh well. But Neil and Katy to the rescue, because other than that, there’s not much here. Then again, the Smurfs movie benefits from the same scenario as the Transformers movies: parents who want to see the movie just to revisit characters from their own childhood, and kids who are eager to see any kid-oriented movie their parents are willing to take them to. And even after parents and kids alike figured out that the first Transformers movie wasn’t very good, they went back and saw two ever-worsening sequels. Perhaps that’s why the Smurfs movie sequels are already en route; this kind of nostalgia-based double whammy doesn’t need to be good in order to be seen.
Smurfs, Cowboys & Aliens Tie for Box Office Lead
It was a strong weekend for unusual creatures this weekend: The Smurfs tied with Cowboys & Aliens for first at the box office. Both films earned $36.2 million.
Cowboys & Aliens Trailer
Despite the deadlock, Cowboys & Aliens comes out as a loser. Considering the star power involved and the budget ($163 million), expectations were high for the Jon Favreu-directed thriller. Instead, it barely made half of what the top superhero-based flicks of the summer took home in their first weekend.
A look at the top five:
- The Smurfs: $36.2 million
- Cowboys & Aliens: $36.2 million
- Captain America: The First Avenger: $24.9 million
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: $21.9 million
- Crazy, Stupid Love: $19.3 million
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