Weekend Box Office: July 12-14

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  Despicable Me 2 - $44.7 million

2.  Grown Ups 2 - $42.5 million

3.  Pacific Rim - $38.3 million

4.  The Heat - $14 million

5.  The Lone Ranger - $11.1 million

6.  Monsters University - $10.6 million

7.  World War Z - $48.8 million

8.  White House Down - $6.1 million

9.  Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain - $5 million

10.  Man of Steel - $4.8 million

It was Minions vs. Giant Robots vs. Adam Sandler at the box office, and not surprisingly, the Minions won the race this weekend, although it was close.  Taking first place for the second weekend in a row was Despicable Me 2, which earned another $44.7 million and pushed its domestic total past the $200 million mark, having earned $229 million.  Worldwide, the animated sequel has owned $472 million.

That left us with Giant Robots vs. Adam Sandler, and much to the dismay of Giant Robot fans, it was Sandler's Grown Ups 2 that easily took second place with an estimated $42.5 million.  Despite scathing reviews, audiences apparently still love their Adam Sandler movies.  Want to be even sadder about that?  It's the second-biggest opening of any Adam Sandler film (behind The Longest Yard), and the highest opening for any comedy this year.

Now where did that leave Pacific Rim?  Well, the good news is that it's director Guillermo Del Toro's highest opening weekend.  The bad news is that overall, a $38.3 million opening is just not a very good opening weekend, especially not with a budget that was reportedly close to $200 million.  You can blame lousy marketing that didn't catch on with mainstream audiences, or you can blame reviews that were decent but praised the special effects and not much else.  It's just not going to be the breakout hit that Del Toro fans were hoping it would be.

But at least its not The Lone Ranger.  Adding insult to last week's already embarrassing opening, the Disney western dropped an awful 62% in its second weekend.  At this rate, it's not even likely to earn $100 million domestically.  At least they can be happy that Monsters University still doing well, that picked up another $10.6 million this weekend.

And if you're still shaking your head about so many people turning up to see Grown Ups 2, you'll be happy to know that the far-superior The Heat is still doing great business with $14 million this weekend, bringing its domestic total up to $112 million.

In limited release, Fruitvale Station earned a terrific $377,000 in just seven theaters nationwide.  The Way Way Back expanded to a whopping 79 theaters, and earned $1.1 million.  Both films are expected to go into wider release as the summer progresses.

Next week has a lot of Ryan Reynolds in it:  he's the voice of the racing snail in the animated Turbo, which opens on Wednesday, and he's co-starring with Jeff Bridges in R.I.P.D., which exists for some reason.  Joining them in theaters will be the sequel Red 2, which has no Ryan Reynolds and looks far superior to either of his movies coming out next weekend.