Grown Ups 2 is a 2013 American comedy film starring Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock and David Spade. The sequel to the 2010 film, Grown Ups, it was directed by Dennis Dugan, written by Sandler, Fred Wolf, and Tim Herlihy. Alongside the quartet, as well as Salma Hayek, Maya Rudolph, and Maria Bello, several actors also reprise their roles from the previous film, with Nick Swardson joining them. In the film, Lenny (Sandler) moves his family back to his hometown, where he reunites with his old friends. Together, they face bizarre situations and new enemies in the form of a local fraternity.
Produced by Sandler's production company Happy Madison Productions and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing, Grown Ups 2 was released on July 12, 2013. It was panned by critics, but grossed $247 million on an $80 million budget. It was nominated for nine Razzies at the 2014 Golden Raspberry Awards. A third film is currently in development.
Contents
Plot
Three years after the events of the first film, Lenny Feder has relocated his family to his hometown of Stanton, where his friends Eric Lamonsoff, Kurt McKenzie, and Marcus Higgins also live. Lenny wakes up in his bedroom to find a deer which wreaks havoc through the house until he uses his daughter Becky's stuffed animal, Mr. Gigglesworth, to lure it outside, where it tears him apart.
Lenny dismisses his wife Roxanne's suggestion that they have another child; Eric worries that his wife Sally is encouraging their children's self-confidence above all else; Kurt gives his wife Deanne a gift for their anniversary, which she has forgotten; and Marcus prepares to spend the summer with Braden, his recently discovered son from one of his previous relationships, but is intimidated by Braden, who deeply hates him.
Lenny commandeers his children's school bus from Nick, the unstable driver and also the brother of Rob Hillard, and takes everyone to their last day of school. He picks up Kurt and Eric and visits K-Mart, where they are joined by Marcus, who has sent Braden to school. Kurt persuades Lenny to throw a party for the first day of summer, and the friends discuss Lenny's childhood bully, Tommy Cavanaugh. Police officers Fluzoo and Dante escort them to Becky's ballet recital at McDonough Elementary, where Lenny runs into Tommy, who openly threatens him.
As school ends, Kurt's daughter Charlotte agrees to go on a date, Lenny's younger son Keith struggles with his own bully Duffy, and Charlotte and Keith's older brothers Andre and Greg accompany Braden to an abandoned quarry, where they join a college party.
After humiliating their old rival Dickie at the Ice Cream House, Lenny, Eric, Kurt, and Marcus visit the same quarry, where they swam during their youth. There, they are confronted by a hostile college fraternity led by Milo and Andy, who force them to jump in naked from the highest point. Finding their fraternity house vandalized, the frat boys blame Lenny and his friends and swear revenge. Later, the friends take Marcus' van, vandalized by Braden, to Eric's auto body shop, and Marcus inadvertently rolls through town in a giant runaway construction tire.
Lenny learns that Keith is a gifted football kicker, but accidentally breaks his son's leg. Eric apologizes to Sally for avoiding her to spend time with his mother. Lenny becomes suspicious of Kyle's relationship with Roxanne, who is angered by her employee Penny's lifelong obsession with Lenny. Marcus bonds with Braden, Charlotte goes on her date, Andre passes his driving test overseen by Wiley, and Greg succeeds in asking out Nancy Arbuckle, a girl he has a crush on.
Cast
The J. Geils Band members Peter Wolf, Seth Justman, Magic Dick, and Danny Klein as well as the group's known tour members Duke Levine and Tom Arey appear as the party band which is identified as Lenny's friends from the aforementioned group.
Production
Filming of Grown Ups 2 began on May 2, 2012, in Swampscott, Massachusetts, which portrayed the fictional town of Stanton, Connecticut, and ended on July 15, 2012. Some scenes were filmed in Saugus, Massachusetts. Columbia Pictures and Happy Madison Productions produced the film. The film was written by Adam Sandler, Fred Wolf and Tim Herlihy and directed by Dennis Dugan, Sandler's longtime collaborator. The film was released on July 12, 2013, in the United States. It was released on August 9, 2013, in the United Kingdom. Rob Schneider, who played Rob Hilliard in the first film, was unable to reprise his role, because of scheduling conflicts with Rob, and also because his wife Patricia was pregnant during production.
This is the first film sequel that Adam Sandler has starred in. It has a role played by WWE Hall of Famer Steve Austin. Stand-up comedian Chris Hardwick confirmed a cameo as an ice cream vendor via his Facebook page, but it was cut from the film. The film features a cameo appearance by New York Yankees television announcer Michael Kay and includes Shaquille O'Neal as a cop. In July 2012, it was announced that Arnold Schwarzenegger's son, Patrick, would be appearing as one of the frat brothers. Oliver Cooper was offered a role as one of the fraternity brothers, but he had to back out due to scheduling conflicts.
Release
The first trailer for the film was released on April 2, 2013. The film was released theatrically on July 12, 2013, in the United States.
Home media
Grown Ups 2 was released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 5, 2013, by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
Reception
Box office
Grown Ups 2 grossed $133.7 million in North America and $113.4 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $247 million, against a budget of $80 million. It made a net profit of $48 million when factoring together all expenses and revenues for the film.
In the U.S., the film earned $16.3 million on its opening day, Grown Ups 2 was released on July 12, 2013, alongside Pacific Rim. and opened to number two in its first weekend, with $41.5 million, behind Despicable Me 2. In its second weekend, the film dropped to number four, grossing $19.9 million. In its third and fourth weekends, the film made $11.6 million and $7.9 million, respectively.
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, Grown Ups 2 has an approval percentage of 8% based on 114 reviews and a rating of 3/10. The critics consensus reads: "While it's almost certainly the movie event of the year for filmgoers passionate about deer urine humor, Grown Ups 2 will bore, annoy, and disgust audiences of nearly every other persuasion." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 19 out of 100 based on 28 critic reviews, meaning "overwhelming dislike". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.
John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter said, "Throughout, gags are cartoonishly broad and afforded so little time for setup and delivery we seem to be watching less a story than a catalog of tossed-out material." Andrew Barker of Variety said, "Among the slackest, laziest, least movie-like movies released by a major studio in the last decade, "Grown Ups 2" is perhaps the closest Hollywood has yet come to making "Ow, My Balls!" seem like a plausible future project." Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle gave the film one out of four stars, saying, "The temptation arises to say something nice about "Grown Ups 2" just because it doesn't cause injury. But no, it's a bad movie, just old-school bad, the kind that's merely lousy and not an occasion for migraines or night sweats."
Linda Barnard of the Toronto Star gave the film zero out of four stars, saying, "Adam Sandler scrapes the bottom of the barrel—and then he pukes into it—with Grown Ups 2, a lazily cribbed-together swamp of pointless and unfunny sketches that makes 2010’s Grown Ups look like Citizen Kane." Matt Patches of Time Out New York gave the film one out of five stars, saying, "In the first five minutes, a deer walks into the star's bedroom and urinates on his face. It's all downhill from there."
Rafer Guzman of Newsday gave the film one out of four stars, saying, "For all its warm and fuzzy notions of family and community, Grown Ups 2... has a desperate reliance on nasty jokes about pee, poo and – with surprising frequency – gay panic." Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly, who gave the film a B, said, "In certain ways, Grown Ups 2 marks a return to classically Sandlerian infantile anarchy." Mark Olsen of the Los Angeles Times gave the film one and a half stars out of five, saying, "Grown Ups 2 looks like it was a lot of fun to make. And the last laugh is on us."
Elizabeth Weitzman of the New York Daily News gave the film two out of five stars, saying, "Like most Adam Sandler movies, it’s exactly like most Adam Sandler movies... This movie stars all Sandler’s buddies and gleefully embraces lowbrow crudity even while promoting loving family values." Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of The A.V. Club gave the film a D−, saying, "Largely free of Sandler’s usual schmaltz and lame romance, it’s pure plotless, grotesque high jinks, bizarre and inept in a way that’s fascinating without ever being all that funny." Nick Schager of The Village Voice gave the film a negative review, saying "A few decent one-liners notwithstanding, the movie comes off as willfully uninspired."
Music
Songs featured in the film:
"Werewolves of London" - Warren Zevon
"Driver's Seat" - Sniff 'n' the Tears
"Tired of Toein' the Line" - Rocky Burnette
"End of the World (Party One More Time) - The PlaceMints [feat. Boogieman]
"Teach Me How to Dougie" - Cali Swag District
"Roller" - April Wine
"U Can't Touch This" - sung by Ada-Nicole Sanger (originally by MC Hammer)
"Dancing on Top of the World (R8d!o's New Swag Remix)" - The PlaceMints [feat. Boogieman]
"Cherry Pie" - Warrant
"New Song" - Howard Jones
"Love Plus One" - Haircut One Hundred
"One in a Million" - The Romantics
"Say It Isn't So" - The Outfield
"Bat Out of Hell" - sung by Kevin James (originally by Meat Loaf)
"Dancing with Myself" - Generation X/Billy Idol
"Heaven" - Bryan Adams
"Never Tell an Angel" - The Stompers
"Bizarre Love Triangle" - New Order
Sequel
Maria Bello said in an August 2016 interview, "People have talked about it and we've heard it might happen, but I don't know if there is a script, I don't know what there is. But I hope so because, boy, it's fun to work with those guys." In January 2020, comedian Tom Scharpling gained attention for uploading an unofficial and unaffiliated Grown Ups 3 script, written in April 2019, to Twitter. In July 2025, while promoting his film Happy Gilmore 2, Sandler hinted a sequel was possible once a story had been greenlit. Rob Schneider expressed support in a sequel following his absence in the second film. In May 2026, a sequel was announced for Netflix with Kyle Newacheck directing. Sunny Sandler revealed that principal photography had begun in August 2026.