BULLSEYE, July 8: ‘Bosses,’ ‘Zookeeper,’ ‘Smurfs,’ ‘Harry Potter,’ More

Here’s the Flixster Bullseye for this weekend of July 8. I don’t have time to analyze it at length, but there are three signs I find notable:

1) Zookeeper, which got kneecapped by MGM’s restructuring challenges and is now being released by Columbia Pictures, looks in terrible shape on the edge of its release today. Not much activity and what there is looks really tepid. Then again, the younger kids being targeted by this comedy aren’t fully accounted for here, and no one predicted that Kevin James’ Paul Blart: Mall Cop, which he also co-wrote, would gross $146 million domestic two years ago, either.

2) DreamWorks and Universal’s Cowboys & Aliens, which hits theaters July 29, is skewing waaaay old with males at the moment. That may be because the kids are distracted by other films right now and the fact that Westerns and star Harrison Ford appeal mostly to the over-40 crowd. But it’s troubling. Still, there are three weeks left to promote it, including a giant, populist premiere at Comic-Con the week before it opens. So we’ll see how things change.

3) New Line’s Horrible Bosses, which also opens today, looks to be primed for a healthy opening. Audiences know about the film in great numbers and seem committed to seeing it in a way that they did Sony’s Bad Teacher and Universal’s Bridesmaids in the last two months.

Here is Pamela McClintock’s box office preview.