The Weekend Report

Pitch Perfect 2 hit the right note and bowed to an estimated $70.2 million to win weekend bragging rights. The session’s other wide release, Mad Max: Fury Road, also opened dynamically with $44.4 million. In limited wide release, inspirational drama Where Hope Grows had little cultivation with a $458,000 tally.

In the niches, Bollywood entry Bombay Velvet was no diamond in the rough with $313,000 from 218 locations and new Tamil and Telugu entrants barely registered a pulse. Exclusive newbies were largely moribund apart from senior-appeal I’ll See You in My Dreams with $50,900 from three screens.

Overall revenues shot up to about $185 million, a sizable 41% boost from seven days back. It was also 4% improved from 2014 when the launch of Godzilla roared to $93.2 million and Neighbors’ second weekend grossed $25.1 million.

Tracking leading into the weekend clearly favored the singing sequel ahead of the kinetic one. The former was expected to gross $50 million to $55 million with the latter approximated at between $35 million and $40 million. In the end both performed better than expected.

Pitch Perfect 2 followed up on its 2012 inspiration with the sort of scenario most chapter twos aspire to but can rarely achieve – namely in its ability to capitalizing on growing its appeal with exposure on cable, satellite and other ancillaries. The first songfest, while unquestionably successful ,wound up with a $65 million domestic box office and an additional international gross of $50 million. It’s already bested its performance on the home front and expected to do the same overseas next weekend.

The film got a head start a week back with opening in Australia and New Zealand that generated a potent $9.2 million. This weekend it added an additional 27 territories and an estimated $27 million including chart-topping bows in the UK of $8 million and $4.2 million in Germany.

Studio exit polls definitively underscored that PP2 hit a bullseye with its target audience. Women comprised 75% of opening customers that were 62% aged 25-years and younger.

The long-gestating Mad Max (three decades since Thunderdome) continuation provided sufficiently time to see the original anti-hero replaced by Tom Hardy in Fury Road. It attracted the inverse Pitch Perfect crowd with a 70% male audience and 63% of eyes aged 25-year and older. It also had a higher than normal 46% attendance for 3D engagements. [ed.: paragraph corrected]

Internationally the film opened day-and-date in 68 international climes and is headed for a $35 million session. Historically Mad Max movies haven’t punched their weight in the U.S. but that could well change for Fury Road with rapturous reviews that bode well for its survival hopes in coming weeks.

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