Universal's genre mix-up "Cowboys and Aliens" narrowly beat out Sony's over-performing kiddie film "The Smurfs" at the weekend box office, final Monday revenue tallies revealed.
The Jon Favreau-directed "Cowboys" grossed $36.4 million over the weekend, according to Universal, while Sony says "Smurfs" took in $35.6 million.
Sony is hardly blue over the narrow defeat, however, since its film out-performed pre-release forecasts that were in the $25 million-$30 million range.
"Cowboys," meanwhile, missed pre-release projections in the $40 million-$45 million range.
