Box office: ‘Bad Grandpa’ overpowers ‘Gravity’

This week, the pull of young men was stronger than “Gravity.”

Powered by the same audience that made the TV series “Jackass” into a money-making franchise, Johnny Knoxville’s hidden camera-fueled movie earned an estimated $12.6 million on Friday. Prerelease audience surveys forecast that the film would earn $30 million in its debut weekend, and it is well on its way to that total.

In the film, officially known as “Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa,” Knoxville disguises himself as an 86-year-old man traveling cross-country with his 8-year-old grandson (Jackson Nicoll). Like Sacha Baron Cohen in “Borat” or “Bruno,” a heavily made-up Knoxville pulls pranks on an unsuspecting public.

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“Gravity” remains a force to be reckoned with at the box office, taking in an estimated $6 million on Friday as the film inches closer to the $200-million mark in earnings. The film was expected to pull in another $22 million this weekend, which stands to be enough to keep it in second place on the chart.

Another film opening this weekend, the Cormac McCarthy-penned thriller “The Counselor,” opened off the pace with an estimated $3.2 million on Friday. Featuring an eclectic cast that includes Michael Fassbener, Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz and Brad Pitt, the film has not been a critical favorite with just a 35% positive score on the film review aggregation site, Rotten Tomatoes.

Elsewhere in the top five, “Captain Phillips” earned an estimated $3.6 million on Friday and is on track for third place, with the horror remake “Carrie” on pace to round out the top five with an estimated $1.9 million.

ALSO:

Michael Fassbender is poised to strike

Johnny Knoxville takes golden-years raunch on the road

Why Spike Jonze and Catherine Keener were cut out of ‘Bad Grandpa’

Twitter: @chrisbarton