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The Universal event pic is the first of the recent fairy tale retellings to win at the box office; Ridley Scott's "Prometheus" opens overseas to stellar $35 million from only 15 markets, nearly matching the $39.3 million grossed by "Snow White" from 45 territories.

Little blue Smurfs and not-so-little green men from space are in a photo finish for the No. 1 spot at the weekend box office. According to studio estimates Sunday, Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford’s sci-fi Western “Cowboys & Aliens” and the animated family adventure “The Smurfs” both opened with $36.2 million. That leaves Sony’s “Smurfs” and Universal’s “Cowboys & Aliens” tied for the top spot. Actual weekend rankings won’t be sorted out until final numbers are counted Monday.

With Russell Brand providing the voice of the reluctant new Easter bunny, "Hop" bound well beyond the expectations of industry analysts, who had figured the movie would debut in the $25 million range.

Universal's family Easter pic Hop over performed in its domestic box office debut, grossing north of $11 million on Friday and putting it on track to earn at least $35 million, if not more, for the weekend... It was a good day overall at the box office. Summit Entertainment’s Source Code and FilmDistrict’s debut title Insidious also opened well.

Screen Gems is back in good form with thriller The Roommate, which easily beat Universal/Relativity’s 3D Sanctum at the Friday box office in grossing an estimated $6.4 million from 2,534 screens. Sanctum, executive produced by James Cameron, grossed an estimated $3.6 million from 2,787 runs, including more than 2,000 3D runs. The Australian adventure-thriller also is playing in 178 Imax theaters.

"True Grit" seized the reins at the weekend box office with $15 million, taking the No. 1 spot and becoming the first Western to top the $100 million mark since the 1990s.

Relativity Media’s Season of the Witch opened to an estimated $3.7 million from 2,816 theaters at the Friday box office to place No. 3 behind Paramount’s True Grit -- which all but jumped the $100 million mark -- and Universal’s Little Fockers.

Sources tell me that Vince Vaughn's latest piece of dreck will make geniuses out of Universal's newly installed chairpeople. "Reason? Movies always do business after the studio heads get fired," one studio exec emailed me tonight.