In the context of the film, the idea was to test Minas Tirith's defences before bringing in the valuable and hard-to-replace weapon which they had dragged for hundreds of miles.
For all the orcs knew, there was some sort of hidden trap in front of the gates. Imagine this sequence of events:
[Army of Mordor reaches Minas Tirith]
GOTHMOG: Bring up Grond at once!
[Trolls push Grond forward. Orcs chant in delight. Grond falls into
deep pit in front of gates. Orcs fall silent. Awkward exchange of
glances between Gothmog and Orc lieutenant.]
In addition, Mordor's strategy is about trying to break the defenders' morale. This is why they started by flinging severed heads over the walls from catapults. From this perspective, it is good psychology to let the defenders think they are doing all right for a while, before shocking them with this terrible new weapon.
If that costs the lives of a few hundred Orcs... well, they have plenty more where those came from, and Gothmog, the Witch-King, and Sauron himself are not at all sentimental about such things.
Out-of-universe, it is also good drama to let the audience think the defenders are doing all right before Grond appears.
I don't have the books to hand, and can't recall if the book version of the approach of Grond was significantly different, but I don't think so.
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