Box office: ‘Grown Ups 2’ on pace to best ‘Pacific Rim’

Futuristic giant robots may be designed to defeat monsters, but they seem to be no match for a bunch of middle-aged comics.

“Grown Ups 2” headed into the weekend tracking ahead of Guillermo del Toro’s ambitious sci-fi effort “Pacific Rim” at the box office with a $16-million take Friday night compared with $14.6 million for “Pacific Rim.” Those who have seen early ticket sales numbers estimate that “Grown Ups 2” could amass a weekend total of $46 million while “Pacific Rim” is estimated to bring in $37 million

The prospective total marks a vindication of sorts for the Adam Sandler-led comedy, which also features fellow veteran comics David Spade, Kevin James and Chris Rock. Heading into the weekend, “Grown Ups 2” received some of the most negative reviews of the summer with just a 7% score on the aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes. Perhaps significantly, the same website indicated a markedly different reception from the viewer perspective with a 90% audience approval rating from more than 50,000 respondents.

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By contrast, “Pacific Rim” opened to mostly positive reviews but stands to come in at third this weekend behind a still-strong “Despicable Me 2,” which is on track for an estimated weekend earnings of another $43 million. The total should push the sequel to the 2010 animated film over the $200-million mark in its second week since opening on July 4.

“The Heat” is expected to come in fourth this weekend with an estimated take of $4.2 million on Friday, which pushed the Paul Feig-directed comedy over $100 million. Disney’s “The Lone Ranger” continued to underperform and looks poised to round out the top five while taking in an estimated $3.4 million on Friday.

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Twitter:@chrisbarton