'Cowboys' battles 'Smurfs' at B.O.

'The Smurfs''Cowboys & Aliens'It ended up like a fight from the hybrid cars for boasting privileges in the weekend's domestic B.O. -- nor The new sony, nor Universal are giving way.Both galleries are calculating $36.two million debuts for "The Smurfs" and "Cowboys & Aliens," departing no room for any obvious champion until modified weekend figures are launched on Monday.Just before the weekend, most B.O. commentators expected U's "Cowboys & Aliens" to hightail it using the B.O. crown having a launch north of $40 million. But a pokey Friday start for "Cowboys" gave method for Sony's live action-toon hybrid to achieve considerable ground within the weekend's B.O. race.Inside a clearer run, Warner Bros.' PG-13 ranked romantic comedy "Crazy Stupid Love" bowed by having an believed $19.3 million. Pic arrived in fifth place behind holdovers "Captain America: The Very First Avenger," with $24.9 million, and "Harry Potter and also the Deathly Hallows: Part 2," calculating $21.9 million through Sunday.Paramount's "Captain America" fell 62% in the second frame for any Stateside cume of $116.8 million. Pic's drop-off is not the very best news for "Captain America," since fellow Marvel pic "Thor" fell just 47% in the soph sesh the 2009 summer time. To date, "Thor" has cumed $180 million locally.Meanwhile, a 54% third-outing drop for Warner Bros.' "Deathly Hallows: Part 2" -- not great, but OK -- increased overall Stateside totals to $318.5 million for that final "Potter" pic, beating series inventor "Sorcerer's Stone" ($317 million) being franchise's greatest-grossing installment within the U.S."Part 2" has cumed $630 million worldwide through Thursday (Warners has not yet launched the pic's weekend estimations).In the Stateside niche B.O., The new sony Pictures Classics released Sundance pick-up "The Guard" at four locations to have an believed per-screen average of $20,100. That narrowly beats another Sundance title, "The Devil's Double," from Lionsgate, which averaged $19,000 from five locations. Contact Andrew Stewart at andrew.stewart@variety.com