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Family adventure The Smurfs and sci-fi western Cowboys & Aliens are currently tied at the top of the US box office.

In a surprising turn of events, both new entries are currently estimated to have brought in a domestic total of $36.2m, although The Smurfs is expected to win the weekend due to the traditional Sunday family audiences.

Last week’s box-office topper Captain America: The First Avenger falls to third place with $24.9m, followed by the record-breaking Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 with $21.9m.

Rounding out the top five films is Steve Carell’s latest comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love, which opened to $19.3m for its first weekend of release.

This week’s US box office top ten in full (studio estimates):
1 = (-) Cowboys & Aliens – $36,200,000
1 = (-) The Smurfs – $36,200,000
3. (1) Captain America: The First Avenger – $24,900,000
4. (2) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 – $21,900,000
5. (-) Crazy, Stupid, Love – $19,300,000
6. (3) Friends with Benefits – $9,300,000
7. (5) Horrible Bosses – $7,100,000
8. (4) Transformers: Dark of the Moon – $5,970,000
9. (6) Zookeeper – $4,200,000
10. (7) Cars 2 – $2,300,000

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is due to become the first entry in the long-running franchise to pass the $1 billion (£609 million) mark.

The final Harry Potter film has currently grossed a domestic total of $296 million (£180 million) and an international total of $630 million (£383 million), bringing the JK Rowling adaptation up to a global total of $926 million (£564 million) since its release two weeks ago.

The film is on track to surpass the $1 billion milestone this weekend to become the highest-earning instalment in the franchise, surpassing the $974.8 million (£593.7 million) taken by Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in 2001.

Only nine films have grossed over $1 billion at the box office, including The Dark Knight, Alice in Wonderland and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

James Cameron’s sci-fi epic Avatar stands as the only film to have grossed more than $2 billion globally.

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The Marvel Studios president has revealed that Hulk will resemble actor Mark Ruffalo in The Avengers.

Kevin Feige said that although previous portrayals of the green superhero have not been based on the actor playing Hulk’s alter ego Bruce Banner, The Avengers will be different.

“It was something we actively avoided before,” Feige told the Los Angeles Times. “Hulk was Hulk, he’s not any one actor and Hulk should look like Hulk.

“But we’ve taken a different approach because Hulk is Banner and, frankly, we came to question our approach. Why are we not doing it this way? So we did a few designs that put Ruffalo into it, and we immediately saw how much more you feel for the creature.”

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Captain America: The First Avengers has scored the highest superhero debut of the year, taking an estimated $65.8m in its opening weekend.

The Marvel Comics adaptation stars Chris Evans as the patriotic World War II superhero, and has so far been well-received by critics.

Last week’s box-office record-breaker Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 falls to second place this weekend, taking $48.1m, followed by this summer’s latest R-rated romantic comedy Friends with Benefits, which opened to $18.5m.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon took $12m, while Jason Bateman comedy Horrible Bosses rounds out the top five films with $11.7m.

This week’s US box office top ten in full (studio estimates):
1. (-) Captain America: The First Avenger – $65,800,000
2. (1) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 – $48,100,000
3. (-) Friends with Benefits – $18,500,000
4. (2) Transformers: Dark of the Moon – $12,000,000
5. (3) Horrible Bosses – $11,720,000
6. (4) Zookeeper – $8,700,000
7. (5) Cars 2 – $5,725,000
8. (6) Winnie the Pooh – $5,140,000
9. (7) Bad Teacher – $2,600,000
10. (10) Midnight in Paris – $1,900,000

Guillermo Del Toro and Ron Perlman have suggested that a third Hellboy film could still happen.

Despite recent speculation that a third comic book adaptation of the Dark Horse character was unlikely to happen, Del Toro and Perlman revealed at Comic-Con International this weekend that it was still under discussion.

Del Toro said during the panel: “I carried Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark thirteen years. I carried Hellboy for almost eight years before it got made, so I’ll stick to [a project] until it gets made.

“The reality is, each of those movies have been an incredible ordeal to make. [Hellboy] was an $89 million (£54.6 million) movie [but] I wound up making it for $50 million (£30.6 million) because nobody wanted a red guy.”

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The upcoming Superman movie The Man of Steel has had its release date pushed back from December 2012 to June 2013.

The Warner Bros movie, directed by Zack Snyder, was originally given a tentative December 2012 release, but has now been granted an official date of June 14, 2013.

The studio recently reviewed its upcoming release schedule, and has pushed Man of Steel back to avoid clashes with its other franchise title The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, which will be brought out on December 14, 2012.

Production will begin this summer with Henry Cavill playing Clark Kent/Superman. He will be joined by Amy Adams, Kevin Costner and Diane Lane.

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The final entry in the long-running Harry Potter franchise has broken box office records by becoming the highest domestic opening weekend ever.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 took an estimated $168.5 million this weekend, topping the $158.7 million taken by The Dark Knight back in 2008.

Michael Bay’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon falls to second place this weekend taking $21.2 million, followed by Seth Gordon’s Horrible Bosses with $17.6 million.

The Kevin James-fronted family comedy Zookeeper took $12.3 million, followed by Pixar’s Cars 2, which rounds out the top five films of the weekend with $8.3 million.

This week’s US box office top ten in full (studio estimates):
1. (-) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 – $168,550,000
2. (1) Transformers: Dark of the Moon – $21,250,000
3. (2) Horrible Bosses – $17,630,000
4. (3) Zookeeper – $12,300,000
5. (4) Cars 2 – $8,344,000
6. (-) Winnie the Pooh – $9,000,000
7. (5) Bad Teacher – $5,200,000
8. (6) Larry Crowne – $2,572,000
9. (7) Super 8 – $1,925,000
10. (-) Midnight in Paris – $1,891,000

Sam Raimi and the original producers of The Evil Dead have confirmed that a remake of the cult horror is in the works.

The news was leaked by producer Bruce Campbell earlier this week, and Ghost House Pictures has now released a statement confirming the report.

Original writer and director Raimi will return as a producer on the remake, alongside Campbell and Rob Tapert.

“We are committed to making this movie and are inspired by the enduring popularity and enthusiasm for the Evil Dead series,” the statement reads.

“We can’t wait to scare a new generation of moviegoers using filmmaking techniques that were not available to us 30 years ago, as well as Fede [Alvarez] bringing a fresh eye to the film’s original elements.”

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