‘Grown Ups 2’ Beats ‘Pacific Rim’ At Friday Box Office

Adam Sandler’s Growns Up 2 trumped Pacific Rim and Despicable Me 2 at the box office on Friday.

Guillermo del Toro’s big-budget creature feature got off to a strong start on Thursday evening. However, Sandler’s star-studded sequel ended up being a bit more popular with moviegoers on Friday.

Despite the bad reviews working against it, Deadline is reporting that Grown Ups 2 rose to the top of the box office on opening day. The follow-up to the 2010 comedy earned an estimated $16.5 million during the first 24 hours in theaters. This puts the flick on-track to generate around $45 million by Sunday.

Unfortunately for Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures, there wasn’t a very big turnout for Pacific Rim on Friday night. The $200 million action flick only managed to bring home around $13.5 million from audiences. This is around $1.5 million less than last week’s top movie Despicable Me 2 .

Although Pacific Rim is doing better than some expected, this could change drastically over the next two days. According to The Hollywood Reporter , industry insiders believe that business could take a nosedive once fanbooys and fangirls have purchased their tickets.

The film’s performance on Thursday evening prompted a slight shift in expectations. Some analysts believed the robots vs. monsters movie could end up with $66 million in its pocket by Monday morning. However, current predictions now see the movie making around $37 million during the weekend.

The Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy comedy The Heat continues to post strong numbers. The film earned around $4.2 million from moviegoers on Friday. Disney’s The Lone Ranger pulled in $7.5 million, bringing its domestic total to approximately $70 million. However, Gore Verbinski’s adaptation still has a long way to go before it breaks even.

Did you catch Adam Sandler’s Growns Up 2 or Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim in theaters this weekend? Are you surprised by the box office results?