Adam Sandler's Video Game Movie Pixels Wins Friday With $9.2 Million

Pixels, the video game-themed comedy starring Adam Sandler and directed by Harry Potter's Christopher Columbus, was the top movie on Friday. It earned $9.2 million at the box office, according to Deadline's industry estimates.

The movie, in which famous video game characters such as Donkey Kong and Pac-Man attack earth, achieved the results despite receiving poor scores from some notable critics (see below).

Deadline also notes that Pixels, though it debuted at No. 1 on Friday, is not expected to stay there for the full weekend. Instead, the site reports that current projections show the Marvel movie Ant-Man, released last weekend, to win the weekend with $26.1 million.

Pixels currently boasts a 27 score on GameSpot sister site Metacritic. Rolling Stone's Peter Travers rated the four 1 out of 4 stars. He wrote in his review, "Yikes! I saw Pixels as a 3D metaphor for Hollywood's digital assault on our eyes and brains. Not funny. Just relentless and exhausting."

Neil Genzlinger wrote in his review for The New York Times: "The special effects are pretty cool, but the film is working nostalgia already thoroughly mined in movies (including the video game-themed Wreck-It Ralph) and television (The Goldbergs and such). So it's not as original as it wants to be, despite having the able Chris Columbus in the director's chair."

Other critics were kinder to Pixels. Katie Walsh for The Washington Post wrote: "Pixels has its funny and fresh moments, thanks in large part to the supporting comic actors and inventive special effects."

Pixels, based on a popular short film, also features Kevin James, Peter Dinklage Michelle Monaghan, and Josh Gad.

Looking for more video game movie coverage? Check out this image gallery to see all the video game movies currently in production--and there are lots.