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August 3, 2011
 

WEEKDAY BOX OFFICE UPDATE August 1-2

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Written by: Mitch Salem
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>THE SMURFS has outgrossed COWBOYS & ALIENS both Monday and Tuesday and now leads total box office to date, a lead it will not give up when both films leave theaters in several weeks. 



Through Tuesday, The Smurfs cumulative total domestically is $46.3 million ($5.0 million Monday and $5.7 million Tuesday).  Cowboys & Aliens now totals $44.9 million ($4.3 million Monday and Tuesday).  Clearly, The Smurfs has the weekday advantage of available children to see the movie.  Normally a non-kid film like Cowboys would look to the second weekend to make up some ground, but the sci-fi aspect of the movie signals a steeper drop than Smurfs will experience.  History will long forget that Cowboys was #1 (by a hair) its opening weekend.  The only number that counts is total gross, and according to the ShowBuzzDaily Domestic Forecast Smurfs is headed for $120+ million, while Cowboys will probably miss $100 million by a fair amount.

Look for Weekend Predictions tomorrow for Rise of the Planet of the Apes from Fox and The Change-Up from Universal. 



About the Author

Mitch Salem
MITCH SALEM has worked on the business side of the entertainment industry for 20 years, as a senior business affairs executive and attorney for such companies as NBC, ABC, USA, Syfy, Bravo, and BermanBraun Productions, and before that, at the NY law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges. During all that, he has more or less constantly been going to the movies and watching TV, and writing about both since the 1980s. His film reviews also currently appear on screened.com and the-burg.com. In addition, he is co-writer of an episode of the television series "Felicity."