WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Washington, Wahlberg Action Flick Outguns 'Smurfs' Sequel in Weekend Frame

Normally it's the evil wizard Gargamel's job to cause despair for the Smurfs, but not this weekend as Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg's bested the little blue people from the top spot with their latest action flick, 2 Guns. 

In 2 Guns, Washington and Wahlberg get caught up in robbing millions of dollars from a Mexican drug cartel, but while the formulaic action plot catapulted the film to the top spot of this weekend's box office, its $27 million opening is also the lowest #1 of the summer. 

Family film, The Smurfs 2 fell short of not only the top spot, but also the #2 spot even finding itself behind last week's superhero champion, The Wolverine. Opening this past Wednesday, the Smurfs sequel burned nearly $10 million of its gross before the weekend started, leaving its 3-day total about half of the first film's $35 million opening weekend. 

'Wolverine' Sequel Claws Its Way to Middle of X-Men Pack

Adamantium-clawed Logan (Hugh Jackman) confronts his own mortality in Japan in The Wolverine.

The quality of the X-Men movies hasn't been the most consistent over the franchise's decade-plus run. When the series belts out rock solid installments such as X2 and X-Men: First Class, they're not just superior superhero films, but rank amongst the best of the their respective years. But then again, the franchise also includes X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Feel free to erase those two from canon.

Much like 2009's X-Men Origins, The Wolverine is a standalone feature that focuses solely on Hugh Jackman's adamantium-clawed loner, Wolverine. Set one year after The Last Stand, Wolverine is summoned to Japan to fulfill the dying wishes of Yashida, an industrial tycoon whose life he saved during the Nagasaki attacks. Yashida offers Wolverine an opportunity to strip away his immortality and put an end to eternal suffering.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: 'The Wolverine' Attacks Top Spot Despite Weaker X-Men Franchise Opening

There was no surprise that The Wolverine would claw its way to the top spot at the box office this weekend, however the standalone mutant film starring Hugh Jackman debuted weaker than every other X-Men film in the franchise with the exception of the first film from 2000.

The Wolverine transports adamantium-clawed superhero halfway around the globe to Japan to reunite with an industrial tycoon whose life he saved during World War II. Despite being based on a popular 80's X-Men arc, a $55 million opening for The Wolverine is startling for a franchise that has boasted higher numbers in the past.   

Last week's top film, The Conjuring and previous two-week champion Despicable Me 2 continued to hold strong in the face of competition. The James Wan scare fest closes in on a successful $100 million run, while Illumination Entertainment's animated spy flick became to second film of 2013 to cross $300 million domestically.