America's bizarre love affair with unfunny "comedies" reared its ugly head again this weekend as the sequel that no one should have wanted, Grown Ups 2 hit theaters and did better than the first one did.
With $42 million Grown Ups 2 topped the $40 million debut of 2010's Grown Ups, but that wasn't enough to unseat last weekend's champ, Despicable Me 2. The animated sequel added $44 million to its now $229 million total and is within easy shot of topping its predecessor's $251 million domestic total. Some predictors expect it to finish above $350 million to be one of the summer's highest grossing films.
There was a lot of excitement and buzz (or at least a lot of advertising) around Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim, but surprisingly little of it translated into box office performance. With just $38 million domestic and a grand total of $91 million when you add in international sales, it's hurting in the Kaiju-sized shadow of the movie's $200+ million production and advertising budget.
But low openings are nothing new for del Toro. In fact, despite the disappointing third place debut for Pacific Rim, it's the highest opening for anything he has directed to date.
There was little new excitement this weekend for The Lone Ranger which cemented its place as a summer sinker. The movie has brought in $119 million so far against its $215 million production budget, dropping over 60% from last week's earnings and slipping from second to fifth place.
For the full weekend top ten, check out the chart below:
