Box Office: 'Pacific Rim' disappoints as 'Grown Ups 2' battles 'Despicable Me 2' for top spot

Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

It looks like the projections for Pacific Rim taking the top spot at the box office this weekend following its strong midnight premiere numbers were a bit premature.

After a hotly-contested weekend in which Pacific Rim went to war with Adam Sandler's Grown Ups 2 and reigning box office champ Despicable Me 2, it now seems that the latter two films are in a tight race for the top spot, while the formerly strong robots vs. monsters feature is looking to finish in third.

Here are the details via The Hollywood Reporter:

Grown Ups 2 topped the Friday box office with a strong $16.3 million. Sony is now predicting a $45 million to $46 million opening, possibly enough to beat Universal's Despicable 2. Other studios, including Universal, have the two sequels each grossing in the $44 million range for the weekend.

Pacific Rim, from Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros., came in No. 2 on Friday with $14.6 million. It's now expected to open in the $37 million to $39 million range, a troubled beginning considering the tentpole's $190 million-plus budget. Legendary, which took the lead on the project, footed most of the budget.

Despicable 2, placing No. 3 Friday with $13.4 million, will pull ahead of Pacific Rim on Saturday. The 3D animated tentpole continues to prove a huge win for Illumination Entertainment and Universal, finishing Friday with a worldwide cume of $404.6 million worldwide.

Fox's Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy comedy The Heat celebrated its own milestone as it jumped the $100 million mark domestically, grossing $13.4 million on Friday for a new total of $111.8 million and placing No. 4.

Coming in No. 5 Friday was Gore Verbinksi's troubled The Lone Ranger, which tumbled 68 percent from the previous Friday to $3.4 million for a North American total of $63.3 million. Providing solace, Disney jumped the $1 billion mark in domestic box office revenue on Friday, the first studio to do so this year.

Ultimately, though Pacific Rim has been getting overwhelmingly positive reviews (with the film currently holding an A- on CinemaScore), word-of-mouth for the film hasn't been strong enough to convince audiences outside of the target demographic to come see the movie. However, the movie is off to a strong start in Asia, Russia, Argentina and director del Toro's native Mexico, though it didn't fare terribly well in Australia on Thursday, finishing at No. 4 behind the Australian opening of The Heat, Despicable Me 2 and Monsters University.

But even with the underwhelming Australian totals, the international box office continues to be the best news for the giant mech movie, as it's currently outpacing several films that went on to gross between $300 million and $400 million overseas, such as Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Clash of the Titans and Prometheus, so the film has a healthy shot at making back its $190 million budget, if not turn a profit altogether.