American Pie 2

J.B. Rogers’s 2001 film is the second in the series and his second as director. He came from inside the same comedy shops: second unit director on the first American Pie, producer on There’s Something About Mary and Me, Myself and Irene. Adam Herz and David H. Steinberg wrote the script. The friends, scattered to different colleges, rent a house on Lake Michigan for the summer and take painting jobs to cover the rent. The lake is in the story only: shooting ran from 14 February to 27 April 2001 around Seal Beach in Southern California, so the summer is manufactured. The one thread that genuinely advances is Jim and Michelle, and the film closes on her band camp concert. The numbers grew. The budget went from 11 million dollars to 30 million, the opening weekend from 18.7 million to 45.1 million, and the worldwide total to 287 million, the highest of the main series. It held number one at the American box office two weekends running, the first film to manage that since Pearl Harbor. A good fit if you want every set piece to be a first-film joke with the volume turned up. Not for anyone hoping the beach house premise opens a new story, since the only real movement is on the Jim and Michelle line.