20 facts you might not know about 'Pitch Perfect'

Mickey Rapkin, a senior editor at GQ, decided to delve deep into the world of competitive collegiate a cappella. That yielded the book Pitch Perfect: The Quest for College a Cappella Glory. It inspired this movie, though the film's plot is quite different from reality.

Rapkin’s book primarily covers three teams. The Tufts Beezlebubs inspired the Treblemakers in the movie, while the Oregon Divisi inspired the Bellas. Then, there are the Virginia Hullabahoos. They didn’t inspire a team, but they do get a cameo.

Kay Cannon is the sole credited writer of the screenplay of Pitch Perfect. It also happens to be her first credited screenplay. That being said, she was already an acclaimed comedy writer. Cannon was a writer for 30 Rock before Pitch Perfect came out.

A combination of a first-time screenwriter and a first-time director? Clearly, expectations were high for Pitch Perfect at the studio, or they probably wouldn’t have let that happen. Jason Moore had directed episodes of TV shows like Dawson’s Creek and Everwood, but this was his first movie. 

The a cappella groups do a lot of singing and dancing, but the film is also a comedy. When casting, the production team decided the comedic chops were more important. Their goal was to cast actors who could handle the comedy and hoped they could handle the singing and dancing.

The de facto lead of Pitch Perfect, Beca, is played by Anna Kendrick. She was the one the producers wanted from the beginning. Elizabeth Banks, who also had a role in the movie, said there was “no other choice” but Kendrick. Producer Paul Brooks, meanwhile, was a huge fan of her work in Up in the Air. He called it “the most exquisite, elegant, balanced, sublime performance.”

Wilson had gotten some attention for Bridesmaids, but Pitch Perfect was a more significant role for her. Apparently, her audition was so good that she immediately won her part. For her audition, she sang Lady Gaga’s “Edge of Glory” while beating on her chest.

The comedy of Pitch Perfect isn’t always high-brow. Meanwhile, Comedy Central’s Workaholics was decidedly low-brow. DeVine was one of the stars and creators of that show, which Banks was a fan of. She said that she was watching Workaholics one night during casting and realized that DeVine would be perfect for the role of Bumper.

Apparently, some wires got crossed when DeVine was called in to audition. That, or DeVine has embellished the story of his casting a bit. He has said that he thought Pitch Perfect was a baseball movie and had not prepared a song for his audition. On the spot, he chose to sing the Full House theme song. Evidently, it worked.

The role of Gail, one of the commentators for the ICCAs, was written with Kristen Wiig in mind. Alas, she couldn’t do it due to scheduling conflicts. Banks, who was producing already, stepped into the role. Wiig must have been quite busy, as Banks and John Michael Higgins filmed their scenes in one day.

This was not the first time Banks and Higgins played coworkers in a movie. The two also co-starred in the film Fred Claus. This was also not the first a cappella-related role for Higgins, who played a member of an a cappella group in the romantic comedy The Break-Up, starring Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn.

Deke Sharon and Ed Boyer were featured in Rapkin’s book, and they both worked on the film, arranging songs and producing vocals. On top of that, they ran a month-long “a cappella boot camp” for the actors.

Barden is not a real college. Pitch Perfect was shot on the campus of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It stood in for Barden.

Wilson relied heavily on her comedic chops while shooting. According to co-star Brittany Snow, Wilson improvised most of her lines. In fact, Wilson and DeVine improvised their entire storyline together, which wasn’t in the script.

During the Riff-Off, Ester Dean’s character Cynthia sings “S&M” by Rihanna. This was a song that she had some familiarity with. Dean is much more a musician than an actor. She's a prolific songwriter and has writing credit on “S&M.”

When filming Pitch Perfect, Anna Camp was married to Michael Mosley. However, they divorced in 2013. Soon after, she began dating Skylar Astin, her Pitch Perfect costar. The two married in 2016, but they divorced in 2019.

This was a small comedy about competitive a cappella with a few known names but no big stars. As such, Pitch Perfect was made for $17 million. When it opened wide, it finished third at the North American box office. The audience kept coming out for the movie, though. Pitch Perfect finished by making nearly $115.4 million worldwide, a real coup.

Pitch Perfect was far from Oscar bait, but a couple of award shows were big fans. Namely, the MTV Movie Awards and the Teen Choice Awards. In particular, Rebel Wilson came out as a big winner. She took home Best Breakthrough Performance from MTV and Choice Movie Actress: Comedy from the Teen Choice Awards.

Pitch Perfect was successful at the box office and also successful on the soundtrack front. It reached as high as No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart. On top of that, Kendrick’s performance of the song “Cups” was an unexpected hit. It reached as high as No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Given the unexpected success of Pitch Perfect, a sequel was naturally greenlit. Pitch Perfect 2 came out in 2015, with Banks stepping in as the director. It was a huge hit, making $287.1 million worldwide. This led to Pitch Perfect 3, which may have shown signs of fatigue, as it earned $185.4 million. There likely won’t be another movie, but a TV spinoff starring DeVine’s character was announced in 2021.