Due to its success, a sequel to the original Diary of a Wimpy Kid film was announced in May 2010. Thor Freudenthal, who directed the first film, was replaced by Bowers. Principal photography began in August 2010.
Greg Heffley has just entered seventh grade. One morning before Greg leaves for his first day of school, Frank and Susan, the latter of whom is writing a parenting column in the local newspaper, tell him and his older brother Rodrick that they need to spend more time together. Susan incentivizes them with play money that they can redeem for real money. Later, a local talent show is advertised on TV, and Rodrick sees it as the big break for his band, Löded Diper. At church the following Sunday, Rodrick stains Greg's pants with chocolate, making people believe that Greg defecated in his pants, humiliating him, and causing an embarrassing public scuffle between the two.
As punishment, the Heffley parents go to the water park, Rockin' Rapids, with the youngest Heffley boy Manny for the weekend. Greg and Rodrick are left home to work on their differences; they are also instructed not to invite anyone over. Defying his parents immediately upon their departure, Rodrick throws a wild party which Greg and his best friend Rowley Jefferson end up participating in. The next morning, Greg and Rodrick receive a voicemail from Susan and Frank, informing them that they will be returning early from their trip due to Manny being ill, prompting them to hastily clean up the trashed house. They find that someone wrote "Rodrick Rules" on the bathroom door in permanent marker. Greg gets the idea to replace it with the door to the basement. However, after their family gets home, they realize that the replacement door does not have a lock on it, whereas the previous one did.
Rodrick tells Greg to deny everything, but Susan soon realizes the lock is gone and confronts the boys over it. Greg confesses that Rodrick had people over, but lies, saying it was only a band practice and begs Susan not to punish Rodrick, suggesting it would ruin their improving relationship. Susan agrees to this, and Rodrick, believing Greg kept their secret, gains respect for him. They start spending more time together, and Rodrick attempts to give Greg advice on school and girls, though most of it backfires.
One night, when Frank plans to show a slideshow of his civil war figurines to the editors of Susan’s paper, who are visiting the Heffleys, he ends up finding pictures of Rodrick’s party. This leads to the
family arguing and for Susan’s editors to refuse to edit her column. Greg is grounded for two weeks, while Rodrick is grounded for a month and forbidden from participating in the talent show, which leaves him distraught. Having learned that Greg partially admitted the truth to Susan earlier on, Rodrick tells Greg that they may be brothers, but will never be friends. Greg and Rodrick are punished further by being forced to spend the weekend with their grandfather at his retirement home, much to their dismay. However, Greg runs into Holly Hills, his new classmate whom he has a crush on, who is visiting her grandmother; Greg learns that Holly, like him, is also the middle child between a malicious older sibling and spoiled younger one, so she and Greg become good friends.
The following week, the family goes to see the talent show anyway, where Rodrick finds out that he has been kicked out of his own band by Bill Walter, a guitarist he recently recruited, while Rowley's magic act is in jeopardy due to his assistant having stage fright. Reluctant because of the potential humiliation it will cause, Greg strikes a deal with Susan that he will stand in as Rowley's assistant if she lets Rodrick perform, which she agrees to. Despite multiple mishaps, "The Remarkable Rowley" and "Greg The Great" are praised by the audience, including Holly, believing the act is actually a comedy skit and that the mistakes are intentional. The audience isn't, however, as impressed by Löded Diper, until Susan starts dancing at the edge of the stage, prompting the crowd to join in. Frank tapes the footage of her dancing and he and Greg agree to keep it a secret. Rodrick kicks Bill out of the band in retaliation and reconciles with Greg.
In a mid-credits scene, Greg and Rowley upload a video of Löded Diper being upstaged by Susan's dancing onto YouTube, which goes viral. Rodrick, having learned about this, shouts "Greg! You are so dead!".
Serge Houde as Mr. Salz, an editor for Susan's column
Teryl Rothery as Mrs. Kohan, another editor for Susan's column
Melissa Roxburgh as Rachel Lewis, one of the girls at Rodrick's house party
Dalila Bela as Taylor Pringle, a girl who celebrated her birthday at the roller rink
Production
Talks of a sequel were announced after the release of the first, but was not officially announced until May 12, 2010, announcing that it would be released on March 25, 2011.[6]
Brad Simpson stated he anticipated a sequel movie if the first film is a success. "Our writing staff are writing a sequel right now, "Rodrick Rules," which would be based on the second book"..."And, you know, we hope that the people to see a second movie, so that we are in position of going again right away and making another film. I certainly know that the fans would like to see all the books made into movies."
Fox 2000 greenlit the sequel with Zachary Gordon returning as Greg Heffley. Steve Zahn (Frank Heffley) and Rachael Harris (Susan Heffley) also returned. The film's screenplay was written by Gabe Sachs and Jeff Judah. Director Thor Freudenthal was replaced by director David Bowers (director of Flushed Away and Astro Boy). A few new characters appeared in the film, including Peyton List as Holly Hills. The website created for the first was updated for the sequel featuring pictures of the cast and a short synopsis of the film.
The trailer was shown with Gulliver's Travels on December 25, 2010. It was later online on January 3, 2011. A poster was released there after on January 14, 2011. In February 2011, an exclusive online-only trailer was released on the "Wimpy Kid Movie" YouTube channel, officialwimpmovie. Due to the success of the first film in Singapore, the film was released there eight days before the US release on March 17, 2011. It was released in Brazil on September 16, 2011.[9] A TV spot of the movie was released in March 2011.
Home media
The film was released on a stand-alone DVD, a special edition double DVD pack, and a Blu-ray/DVD/digital copy combo pack on June 21, 2011. One of the bonus shorts was shown during iParty with Victorious on Nickelodeon at 8:00 PM on June 11, 2011.
Reception
Box office
The film made $7.3 million on its opening day, ranking #2 behind Sucker Punch. It managed to rank #1 in the weekend box office.[10] In the UK, it debuted at #3 in the weekend box office behind Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and The Hangover Part II.
The film eventually grossed $52,698,535 in the US and Canada and $19,718,859 in other countries for a worldwide total of $72,417,394.[3]
Critical reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 48% based on 99 reviews and an average rating of 5.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Moderately witty and acceptably acted, Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2 isn't much worse than the first installment."[11] On Metacritic, it has a score of 51 out of 100 based on 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[12] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[13]
Robert Abele of the Los Angeles Times gave the film a positive review saying, "Director David Bowers keeps things peppy and brightly lighted, but its swiftest pleasures come from moment-seizing cast members." Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it a positive review saying, "A little less wimpy, gives value lessons to the watchers from the cast, and still pretty funny" and a B rating. Pete Hammond of Boxoffice magazine gave it a mixed review stating "Even better than the first edition, in its own sitcom-ish ways." However, Michael O'Sullivan of The Washington Post gave it a negative review, stating "You can't fault the filmmakers for reshaping a diary into a cohesive film. You can however, fault them for taking one of the great antiheroes in preteen literature and turning him into, well, an even wimpier kid."[14]
On October 23, 2021, Jeff Kinney revealed that sequels to the 2021 Diary of a Wimpy Kid reboot film for Disney+ are already in development.[16][17] On Disney+ Day 2021, Kinney revealed that the first sequel, based on Rodrick Rules, is set to be released in 2022. A poster was released on September 12, 2022, announcing the film's release date of December 2, 2022.[18]
