'Pitch Perfect 2' Outruns 'Mad Max' At US Box Office
The latest Mad Max film may well be one of the best-reviewed action thrillers of all time, with a huge Metascore of 89 - well above the average for the genre - but it seems Max isn't quite tough enough to beat the Barden Bellas to the number-one spot.
According to Deadline, first-day ticket estimates at the US box office put Fury Road at number two with $16.8m, while Pitch Perfect 2 is well ahead with $27.8m for Friday - that's almost double what its predecessor made over the full three-day period during its first weekend of nationwide release back in 2012.
Anna Kendrick and the girls are likely to end the weekend with a cool $62-64m (so, almost as much as Pitch Perfect made during its entire run), while Tom Hardy, if estimates hold, will cross the finish line in second place with $41-43m - which is perhaps a little disappointing for a film that has surpassed critics' expectations and impressed fans of the original Mel Gibson trilogy.
However, the race to the top spot could end up a little closer than the Friday figures suggest. Films like Pitch Perfect 2 tend to be front-loaded, dropping off as the weekend progresses, while word of mouth could help George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road make up some ground on the all-singing, all-dancing troupe by Sunday.
More: Read our review of Pitch Perfect 2
Meanwhile, Avengers: Age of Ultron is at number 3 with $10.1m, and its worldwide tally has recently passed the $1billion mark, but the film still has some way to go to match its predecessor's $1.5bn.