Box office: ‘The Wolverine’ shreds the competition

“The Wolverine” ripped up its competition going into the weekend, raking in an estimated $21 million on Friday in ticket sales.

As expected, the latest blockbuster in the “X-Men” film series will easily lead the weekend box office.

Fox’s summer tentpole unseated “The Conjuring,” which was the favorite of filmgoers last weekend. The horror film took in an additional $7.3 million and is on track for a second-place finish.

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Universal’s “Despicable Me 2” continued to outpace another family-friendly film, DreamWorks Animation’s “Turbo.” Now in its fourth weekend in theaters, “Despicable Me 2” took in $4.8 million on Friday and is quickly approaching $300 million.

But like its plot about a snail with aspirations to move a little bit quicker, “Turbo” got closer to its animated rival and brought in just over $4 million on Friday for a fourth-place finish.

Adam Sandler proved filmgoers haven’t thrown in the same towel critics have. His latest, “Grown Ups 2,” took in $3.6 million on Friday with the Helen Mirren, Bruce Willis and John Malkovich action flick “Red 2” hot on its tail with $2.7 million in Friday box-office receipts.

A few high-concept, big-budget blockbusters continued their box-office tumbles.

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Guillermo Del Toro’s robot epic “Pacific Rim” is still underperforming in its third week, taking in an estimated $2.1 million on Friday.

“R.I.P.D.,” the Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds action flick didn’t manage to debut in the top five last week and finished in ninth place on Friday when the flick brought in a paltry $1.8 million, making its overall total $20 million -- a long way from its reported $130-million price tag.

Rounding out the top 10 is “Fruitvale Station.” The drama about the last day in the life of 22-year-old Oscar Grant -- unarmed and killed by a guard after a New Year’s altercation on an Oakland train in 2009 -- took in $1.4 million on Friday. The Weinstein Co. expanded the critically acclaimed drama from 34 theaters to 1,064 -- certainly a bigger distribution, but still small in comparison to blockbuster films like “The Wolverine,” which is screening in nearly 4,000 theaters nationwide.