Pitch Perfect 2 beats Mad Max to top of UK box office
Musical comedy Pitch Perfect 2 has topped the UK box office in its opening weekend, beating Mad Max: Fury Road into second place.
The new Pitch Perfect film, which again stars Anna Kendrick and Rebel Wilson, took £5m - more than five times the original film's cinema debut in 2012. Mad Max: Fury Road, starring Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron, took £4.5m. The Avengers: Age of Ultron slipped into third after three weeks at number one, with £1.66m. The original Pitch Perfect, about a fictional a capella singing group called the Barden Bellas, became a sleeper hit following its release. The sequel also topped the US and Canada box office over the weekend, taking an impressive $70.3m (£44.7m) - more than the first film took during its entire US run in cinemas. Directed by Elizabeth Banks, the story sees the Bellas travel to the world championships to defend their honour against German aca-champions Das Sound Machine. The new Mad Max film, a reboot of the original starring Mel Gibson, premiered at Cannes Film Festival last week where it received favourable reviews. Most reviewers awarded the action-packed epic four or five stars, with The Daily Telegraph describing it as a "Krakatoan eruption of craziness". TV spin-off Spooks: The Greater Good and Carey Mulligan costume drama Far From the Madding Crowd, based on Thomas Hardy's novel, completed the weekend's top five.