The Bellas are back, and this time they’re getting the blockbuster treatment.
You're watching Beyond The Trailer’s review of Pitch Perfect 2...
The original Pitch Perfect, made for just seventeen million, opened in limited release
in the fall of 2012. The first picture Elizabeth Banks had ever fully produced, along with
her husband Max Handelman, and stared up and coming actresses Anna Kendrick and Rebel Wilson.
Then, to everyone’s surprise, the jukebox musical pulled in over a hundred million worldwide
- not to mention produced several Billboard Hot 100 hits, all included on what went on
to become the biggest selling soundtrack of the year! Now, three years later, Universal
knows they have a hot property on their hands and are releasing it accordingly. Now it’s
competing smack in the middle of the summer movie season, and Banks has used the momentum
of the first film to catapult herself into the director’s chair - adding to a growing
list of women who are stepping up to the camera. Anna Kendrick returns, now Hollywood’s go-to
musical performer with recent turns in The Last Five Years and Into the Woods, while
Rebel Wilson is now a household name - having gone from a cameo in Bridesmaids to hosting
the 2013 MTV Movie Awards and co-starring in Night at the Museum 3. But Pitch Perfect
2 isn’t resting on its laurels for its second act - no, Banks is definitely a savvy movie
producer. After Kendrick worked out so well, she’s added another Oscar nominee to the
cast, Hailee Steinfeld. Banks has also brought on musical comedian Flula Borg, in the most
high profile Hollywood gig yet for a YouTube personality. Why even Green Bay Packers linebacker
Clay Matthews and several of his teammates have been drafted! Finally, behind the camera
Kay Cannon returns to script - and this time co-produce. The 30 Rock and New Girl writer
is an important reminder that women are taking on other behind the camera roles in the industry
besides director. So, will Pitch Perfect 2 hit the right key? Or did the jukebox musical
craze truly die with Glee?