Frank and Susan Heffley tell their sons, Greg and Rodrick, that they need to spend more time together. Susan incentivizes them with "mom bucks", which they will earn for real money depending on the hours they get along together, as she is writing a parenting column in the local newspaper. When a local talent show is announced, Rodrick hopes it will be the big break for his band, Löded Diper. As a prank, he later stains Greg's pants with chocolate at church, causing a scuffle and harming Susan's reputation.
Susan, Frank, and their youngest son, Manny, go on a trip, leaving Greg and Rodrick home for the weekend to work on their bonding along with an instruction to not have any guests. Disobeying these orders, Rodrick throws a wild party by inviting his teenage friends over, in which Greg and his best friend, Rowley Jefferson, participate, and Greg and Rodrick start to bond.
The next morning, they receive a voicemail from Susan and Frank saying Manny is sick so they will be returning home early. In a panic, they manage to clean up the house, but notice that graffiti in permanent marker has been put on the bathroom door; they switch it with one from the basement, only to realize that it lacks a lock. Susan notices and confronts Greg, who claims Rodrick only had people over for band practice. He begs her not to punish Rodrick, suggesting it would ruin their improving relationship. Rodrick, believing Greg kept their secret, gives him advice on both school and women.
Later, photographic evidence of the party is discovered when Frank attempts to present a slideshow of his Civil War figurines to Susan's editors. He and Susan punish Greg and Rodrick by having them spend the weekend with their grandfather at his retirement home and prohibit Rodrick from participating in the talent show. At the retirement home, Greg runs into his classmate and crush, Holly Hills, who is visiting her grandmother. Like him, she is the middle child between a malicious older sibling and spoiled younger one and they become good friends.
The family goes to see the talent show, where Rodrick finds 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's stage fright. Greg strikes a deal with Susan that he will stand in as Rowley's assistant if she lets Rodrick perform. "The Remarkable Rowley" and "Greg The Great" are praised by the audience, including Holly, believing the act is a comedy skit with intentional mistakes. The audience is not as impressed by Löded Diper, until Susan starts dancing at the edge of the stage, prompting the crowd to join in. Frank secretly videos her dancing, while Rodrick kicks Bill out of the band and reconciles with Greg.
Greg and Rowley upload the video of Löded Diper being upstaged by Susan's dancing to YouTube. It goes viral, angering Rodrick.
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. Dune Entertainment financed 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. 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. 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.
Critical reception
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 48% of 98 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.5/10.The website's consensus reads: "Moderately witty and acceptably acted, Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2 isn't much worse than the first installment."Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 51 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.
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."
