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Box office: ‘The Wolverine’ shreds the competition

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“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.

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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.

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“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.

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