Box-Office: ‘Pitch Perfect 2’ Hits All The Right Notes, Tops ‘The Avengers’ & ‘Mad Max’ With $70 Million Opening

Aca-what? Sorry “Avengers: Age of Ultron” and “Mad Max: Fury Road,” Universal’s comedy/musical “Pitch Perfect 2” stole the box-office this weekend with an outstanding $70.3 million opening (read our review). While it's a PG-13 film, for comparison, the second highest grossing R-Rated comedy opening is the $57 million "22 Jump Street" took in last year. It’s the biggest opening for a comedy musical ever, and if there was a question of a “Pitch Perfect 3," well, there isn’t one now. Impressively, the $70 million sequel bow outgrosses the entire domestic run ($65M) of the original and at this rate should easily double the $115 million worldwide opening.

In contrast, “Mad Max: Fury Road,” which critics went nuts for and many are calling the greatest action movie of the year if not the decade, took in $44.4 million (read our review). Don't be thrown by that figure though. It’s a great number for a film whose only major star is Charlize Theron, as Tom Hardy...