LOS ANGELES — Universal’s minions ran away with the box office for the second week in a row.

With $44.8 million in domestic ticket sales Friday through Sunday, the animated sequel “Despicable Me 2” outdid the debuts of the Adam Sandler comedy “Grown Ups 2” and director Guillermo del Toro’s monsters-versus-robots action flick “Pacific Rim.”

The weekend’s No. 1 movie featuring Steve Carell as ex-supervillain Gru made another $55.5 million overseas. That brought its global two-week total to $472.4 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

“This has become the July film to beat right now,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box office tracking division of Hollywood.com.

Sony was pleased with Sandler’s second-best movie opening of his career with $42.5 million in sales in the U.S. and Canada.