Money talks, but blockbuster music sings. The original Pitch Perfect was considered enough of a hit in 2012 to green light a sequel, making a tidy $115 million off a $17 million budget. But the sequel, appropriately titled Pitch Perfect 2, has been a summer juggernaut, earning over $250 million worldwide (and it’s not even done yet).
So you if you think for one moment that Universal Pictures wasn’t going to move ahead with Pitch Perfect 3, you’re a crazy pants person whose pants are legitimately crazy. And you’d have been proven wrong this morning, when Hollywood Reporter announced that Universal has already commissioned a script for Pitch Perfect 3 from screenwriter Kay Cannon, who also wrote the first two movies in the franchise.
Related: SoundTreks Reviews the ‘Pitch Perfect 2’ OST
But all is not well in Pitch Perfect land. Anna Kendrick and Rebel Wilson, the faces of the franchise, are not signed up for a third film in the series, and after the enormous success of Pitch Perfect 2, they are very likely to ask for a hefty payday to return for Pitch Perfect 3. That means there’s a very good chance that Pitch Perfect 3 may wind up being made without them, depending on how willing Universal Pictures will be to play ball with the two actresses, whose popularity may be essential to the success of the franchise.
Similarly, it’s also unclear whether Pitch Perfect 2 director Elizabeth Banks – who also co-produced the original film – will be back for more installments in the series. But one actress whom audiences will see again is Hailee Steinfeld, who joined the cast for the second film and is still contracted for one more movie.
Frankly, it was a bit of a miracle that Pitch Perfect 2 didn’t suck, if only because comedy sequels are usually a tired rehash of the original film. So we might be foolish to hope that Pitch Perfect 3 will also be aca-awesome, but with Kay Cannon sticking around, the second encore might be worth sticking around for after all.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and the host of The B-Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
