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The response to the first trailer had the New York Times reporting how the film “may be caught in a web of false expectation.” This was after the trailer played before a screening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 and despite the serious tone, audiences were laughing. It prompted distributors Universal to start a campaign to change expectations people had about the film.

A week before it was released, the film had its world premiere at the San Diego Comic Con in July 2011. During the days leading up to the film’s release, mixed reviews came in. It was interesting to note that even some of the positive reviews mentioned how the film failed to fully deliver.

Cowboys & Aliens had a huge production budget of $163 million that was shared between Universal, DreamWorks and Imagine Entertainment. It opened on Friday, July 29, 2011, with Universal forecasting an opening weekend take between $40 million - $45 million. There was a cause of alarm as its opening day gross of $13 million was bested by one of the other wide openers, The Smurfs, which earned $13.2 million. With Cowboys & Aliens predicted to win the weekend, how would it look that a big budget blockbuster headlined by Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig were to be beaten to the top spot by The Smurfs? Answer – it would look amazingly bad.

After the totals for Saturday and Sunday came in, Cowboys & Aliens had been confirmed as the #1 film, but only just, with a total of $36.4 million. The big surprise was that The Smurfs was close behind with a take of $35.6 million. The good news was short-lived. With a turbulent production history spanning 14 years in the making, Cowboys & Aliens spent just three weeks inside the US top ten, earning a little over $100 million. Paramount handled distribution overseas, with the film making an additional $74.5 million. It earned a total worldwide gross of $174.8 million. Oh dear. Just to rub it in, The Smurfs outgrossed Cowboys & Aliens in the long run and became a franchise.

Given the ridiculousness of how it sounds, some people probably stayed away after passing judgment on the title alone. Favreau said of the title, “[People] react very strongly to it. They either get mad at it, or they love it, or they cheer for it, or they’re confused by it, but they don’t forget it. And in this day and age, there’s a value to that.” Yes, there are people out there that judge a film by its title.

Cowboys & Aliens happens to be very straightforward. Aliens come, cowboys fight it out with them, cowboys win. The end. Fair play for the serious slant, but because of the complete lack of humor, the film most likely lost a good chunk of its potential audience. Cowboys & Aliens sounds like a fun blockbuster, but when Universal is having to spearhead a campaign to inform people that it’s not funny and very serious, then those moviegoers looking for a fun comedy are going in the other direction.

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