Despicable Me 2 Poised to Beat Pacific Rim, Grown Ups 2 At Box Office

It looks like Despicable Me 2 will be highest-grossing movie in America for the second week in a row, in spite of two major films opening new this week. While the last couple of weeks, people have been debating whether Grown Ups 2 had a chance to beat Pacific Rim at the box office, in spite of poor word-of-mouth and a budget that's less than half what the Guillermo del Toro-directed monster movie spent, few had considered the possibility that Despicable Me 2, coming off of a massively strong opening last weekend, might carry that success over into this week. As of yesterday, the order was pretty predictable: Grown Ups 2, which had been doing well in early tracking, was set to take #1, followed by Pacific Rim with Despicable Me in the #3-spot. Today, though, Deadline reports that "The finish order is changing for the Top 3 films this weekend. My sources tonight say holdover Despicable Me 2 is #1 again with around $45M beating newcomers Grown Ups 2 ($43.8M for #2) and Pacific Rim ($39.7M for #3). Others still think the 3D toon and Adam Sandler's ensemble comedy are neck and neck." Pacific Rim did remarkably well at midnight screenings and then stayed neck and neck with the other films throughout Friday, but by the end of the day the core audience had apparently fallen off somewhat and the higher-end 3D and IMAX tickets weren't there anymore to keep up the momentum.