George Miller proved to be no match for for a sequel to a sleeper hit. “Pitch Perfect 2” blew away the original, making $70 million over its opening weekend to the original’s $14.8 million. The opening weekend gross from “Pitch Perfect 2” has already eclipsed the entire domestic run of “Pitch Perfect” as well. It’s impressive that the sequel has done so well when the original was such a sleeper hit.
Now, the success of “Pitch Perfect 2” is awesome but “Mad Max: Fury Road” has also done very well. This film could have been a disaster. There was a massive $150 million budget as well as reshoots and bad behavior from cast members. However, a $44 million opening and a movie that is being raved about came from all the mess.
| Rank | Title | Studio | Weekend Gross | % Change | Total Gross | Week # | |||||
| 1 | Pitch Perfect 2 | Uni. | $70,300,000 | – | $70,300,000 | 1 | |||||
| 2 | Mad Max: Fury Road | WB | $44,440,000 | – | $44,440,000 | 1 | |||||
| 3 | Avengers: Age of Ultron | BV | $38,837,000 | -50.0% | $372,008,000 | 3 | |||||
| 4 | Hot Pursuit | WB | $5,780,000 | -58.5% | $23,504,000 | 2 | |||||
| 5 | Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 | Sony | $3,600,000 | -32.2% | $62,929,000 | 5 | |||||
A quick note on budgets and dollar figures:
Films making back their budgets is a good sign, but that is just the money to film. It doesn’t include distribution and marketing. Marketing can cost as much as a film. That big Superbowl spot is spendy. So take that into account when judging a film’s success. Hitting $100 million isn’t the same as it once was.
All dollar amounts in the top 5 come from estimates based on ticket sales unless noted otherwise. Occasionally this article will be published when actual results come out, which is usually late Monday afternoon. For more about this and other ins and outs of movie tracking click here.