Taglines: There’s a new war next door.
Mac (Seth Rogen) and Kelly Radner (Rose Byrne) are expecting their second child and preparing to move out of their house. They soon reunite with Teddy (Zac Efron) to help battle the sorority sisters of Kappa Kappa Nu, led by Shelby (Chloë Grace Moretz), who moved in to their house. Kappa Kappa Nu is a new sorority that branched off from Phi Lambda Phi, led by Madison (Selena Gomez).
Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (released in some countries as Bad Neighbours 2) is a 2016 American comedy film directed by Nicholas Stoller and written by Stoller, Andrew J. Cohen, Brendan O’Brien, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. A sequel to Neighbors (2014), the plot follows the Radners (Rogen and Rose Byrne) having to outwit a new sorority led by Shelby (Chloë Grace Moretz), living next door in order to sell their house currently in escrow. Zac Efron, Dave Franco, Jerrod Carmichael, Ike Barinholtz, Carla Gallo, Hannibal Buress, and Lisa Kudrow reprise their roles from the first film; it was Rogen’s first live action sequel. The film premiered on April 26, 2016, in Berlin and was released on May 20, 2016, in the United States, receiving mostly positive reviews and grossed $108 million worldwide.
Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising grossed $55.4 million in North America and $52.6 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $108 million, against a budget of $35 million. In North America, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising opened on May 20, 2016, alongside The Angry Birds Movie and The Nice Guys, and was projected to gross $35–40 million from 3,384 theaters in its opening weekend.
The film grossed $1.7 million during its Thursday night previews (lower than the original’s $2.5 million) and $8.7 million on its first day. In its opening weekend the film grossed $21.8 million, less than half both the previous film’s opening ($49 million) and projections, and finished third at the box office behind The Angry Birds Movie ($38.2 million) and Captain America: Civil War ($32.9 million).
About the Story
Two years after the events of the first film, Mac (Seth Rogen) and Kelly (Rose Byrne) are trying to sell their home with the arrival of another baby. A couple, Eric (Sam Richardson) and Jessica Baiers (Abbi Jacobson) are looking to buy; the realtor (Liz Cackowski) tells Mac and Kelly that their house is in escrow for 30 days, so the buyers will check in every now and then to make sure everything is okay.
Meanwhile, Mac’s friend, Jimmy (Ike Barinholtz), and his once-again wife Paula (Carla Gallo) are also expecting a baby. At the Phi Lambda sorority, Shelby (Chloë Grace Moretz), a freshman, learns that sororities are not allowed to host parties, and can only attend frat parties. Shelby goes to a frat party and meets two other freshmen, Beth (Kiersey Clemons) and Nora (Beanie Feldstein). They are disgusted by the sexist and perverse nature of the party and leave. Bonding over their dissatisfaction, the trio decides to set up a new sorority, Kappa Nu, to host their own parties.
Meanwhile, Teddy Sanders (Zac Efron) is at a dinner with his old frat brothers Pete (Dave Franco), Scoonie (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), and Garf (Jerrod Carmichael). Since graduating, they had been successful in their own jobs: Pete is working as an architect and has come out of the closet, Scoonie has launched his own app, and Garf is now a cop. Due to the events from the first film, Teddy now has a criminal record and cannot get a worthwhile job to support himself (having been fired from his job as a shirt model). Since that time, he had continued blaming the Radners’ for both the record and the loss of career opportunities.
Pete’s boyfriend Darren (John Early) then proposes to him, and Pete accepts, leading Pete to ask Teddy to move out, which later escalates into an argument between the two. The following day, the girls try to rent the adjacent house to the Radners’, but do not have enough money to pay for it. Teddy, finding an opportunity where he can be valued, offers to help them and suggests a successful way to afford the rent. That night, they throw their first party. Horrified to learn they are a sorority, Mac and Kelly ask Shelby to keep the noise down. Mac and Kelly report them to Dean Gladstone (Lisa Kudrow), but she is unable to intervene since they are an independent sorority and she fears that shutting it down may lead to a public relations nightmare regarding sexism.
The couple contact Shelby’s father (Kelsey Grammer), but he fails to control the situation. Feeling outraged, the girls constantly haze the Radners. Mac, Kelly, Jimmy, and Paula retaliate by causing a bed bug infestation in the house, resulting in a fumigation just in time for the Baier’s visit. The girls plan to raise money by selling weed at the school’s tailgate and eliminating all the other competition by getting all the other weed dealers on campus arrested.
Teddy strongly objects and the girls vote to kick him out of the house. Spurned, Teddy decides to join forces with the Radners to take down the sorority. They all go to the tailgate event to steal the weed. Teddy distracts the girls while Mac steals their weed supply. Shelby catches Mac, but he manages to escape. As gratitude for Teddy’s help, Mac and Kelly allow him to stay at their place until he decides what he wants to do with his life, where he grows closer to them.
In retaliation for the tailgate, the girls switch Mac’s and Kelly’s phone numbers with their own, leading Kelly to become paranoid, and Mac to end up in Sydney, Australia. When he returns, Mac and Kelly find that they have been robbed and the sorority is selling their stuff and has spray-painted “Kappa Nu Steals From You” in the house. This causes the Baiers to threaten to pull out from the deal, while Mac and Kelly also reflect if they have been good parents.
When the realtor of the sorority house reveals the girls are late on their payments, the Baiers give Mac and Kelly a day to get them out of the house. The girls find an eviction notice on their door. With barely any money to support themselves, Shelby says the only way they can win is to abandon their morals and resort to having a basic frat party with more sex appeal. They advertise the party to everyone on campus, leading to more people showing up at the house.
Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising
Directed by: Nicholas Stoller
Starring: Seth Rogen, Zac Efron, Rose Byrne, Chloë Grace Moretz, Dave Franco, Ike Barinholtz, Carla Gallo, Selena Gomez, Lisa Kudrow
Screenplay by: Andrew J. Cohen, Brendan O’Brien, Nicholas Stoller, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg
Production Design by: Theresa Guleserian
Cinematography by: Brandon Trost
Film Editing by: Zene Baker, Peck Prior, Michael A. Webber
Costume Design by: Leesa Evans, Emily Gunshor
Set Decoration by: Ryan Watson
Music by: Michael Andrews
MPAA Rating: R for crude sexual content including brief graphic nudity, language throughout, drug use and teen partying.
Studio: Universal Pictures
Release Date: May 20, 2016
Visits: 47
