When Pitch Perfect opened on the relatively quiet weekend of Sept. 28, 2012, Universal Pictures was so unsure that an ensemble comedy about an all-female collegiate a cappella group would be a mainstream box office hit out of the gate that it released the film in just 335 theaters, and then expanded the second weekend to 2,770 theaters. Over that 10-day time span, the film grossed $21.7 million, and ultimately made $65 million in the U.S. — an impressive sum for a modestly budgeted comedy.
Pitch Perfect 2 opened this weekend, in the insanely competitive month of May, in 3,473 theaters. It grossed an estimated $70.3 million. That is, to be clear, more than Pitch Perfect’s entire run at the domestic box office. That never happens.
