‘The Devil Wears Prada’ struts to first place with US$77 million debut

This image released by 20th Century Studios shows Meryl Streep, left, and Anne Hathaway in a scene from "The Devil Wears Prada 2." (Macall Polay/20th Century Studios via AP)

Twenty years after the original, the sequel to “The Devil Wears Prada” made a splash in its first weekend in theaters. Driven largely by women, “The Devil Wears Prada 2” earned US$77 million in the U.S. and Canada, and US$156.6 million internationally, according to studio estimates Sunday. It easily topped the box office and bumped “Michael” to second place, though the musical biopic held well in its second weekend, falling only 44 per cent.

The Walt Disney Co.’s 20th Century Studios opened “The Devil Wears Prada 2” in 4,150 locations in North America. Women made up about 76 per cent of the ticket buyers, according to PostTrak exit polls; 74 per cent said they would “definitely recommend” the movie to friends. Critics were a bit mixed on the sequel, which finds Anne Hathaway’s Andy Sachs working once more for Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly at the fictional “Runway” magazine in a much-depleted media landscape.

The movie cost a reported US$100 million to produce — a significant boost from the first movie’s US$35 million production budget. But as filmmaker David Frankel told The Associated Press recently, “As it turns out, you know, by the time you finish paying all the biggest movie stars in the world, you still end up with basically the same budget for making the movie as we did the first one.”

Stars Streep, Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci have been on a fashion-forward global publicity blitz for weeks, with glamorous stops in Tokyo, London and New York. Even Anna Wintour, the inspiration for the Prada-clad devil, has been involved this time, appearing with Hathaway on the Oscars stage and with Streep on the cover of “Vogue.”

The first movie opened in June 2006 and would go on to earn over US$326 million worldwide, not adjusted for inflation. And perhaps more importantly, it firmly became part of the culture thanks in part to its ever-quotable likes (“gird your loins,” “groundbreaking,” “that’s all”). Legacy sequels are never a sure thing, but this time anticipation was high: According to Nielsen, streaming viewership for “The Devil Wears Prada” was up 428 per cent from March 2026 to April 2026.

Second place went to Lionsgate’s Michael Jackson biopic “Michael,” which made US$54 million in its second weekend in North America, where it’s playing on 3,955 screens. Its running worldwide total is already US$423.9 million. Universal Pictures is handling the international release.

“This is on the great end of what we had speculated might happen, but we were very confident that we were going to have a great hold even with the assumption that ‘Prada’ would do a lot of business,” said Lionsgate Motion Picture Group chairman Adam Fogelson. “The conventional wisdom that a new giant movie can knock out a movie that has planted itself is constantly proven inaccurate.”

This weekend marks the start of Hollywood’s summer movie season, a crucial 18-week corridor that runs through Labor Day and often accounts for around 40 per cent of the annual box office. There are often Marvel blockbusters programmed as the season’s kickoff, but the combined power of “The Devil Wears Prada 2” and “Michael” wasn’t a shabby substitute.

“This is a really solid weekend,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the head of marketplace trends for Comscore. “It’s this irresistible combination that more than makes up for the fact that there’s not a Marvel movie to kick off the summer movie season.”

“Prada” alone actually did better business than last year’s summer kickoff Marvel movie, “Thunderbolts.” There were several other new films in theaters this weekend as well, including the Adam Scott-led horror movie “Hokum,” Andy Serkis’s animated adaptation of “Animal Farm” and the Aaron Eckhart- and Ben Kingsley-led survival movie “Deep Water.”

They all opened behind “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” which made US$12.1 million in its fifth weekend, and “Project Hail Mary,” which made US$8.6 million in its seventh weekend. Neon’s “Hokum” led the newcomers with US$6.4 million, rounding out the top five, followed by the very poorly reviewed “Animal Farm” with US$3.4 million. “Deep Water” opened to US$2.2 million.

In the top four movies, Dergarabedian has noticed a trend: “Over the past couple of months, moviegoers have really embraced pure, escapist entertainment,” he said.

The annual box office is currently running about 14 per cent up from last year, with about US$2.8 billion in domestic ticket sales to date.

Top 10 movies by domestic box office

With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:

1. “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” US$77 million.

2. “Michael,” US$54 million.

3. “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” US$12.1 million.

4. “Project Hail Mary,” US$8.6 million.

5. “Hokum,” US$6.4 million.

6. “Animal Farm,” US$3.4 million.

7. “Lee Cronin’s The Mummy,” US$2.2 million.

8. “Deep Water,” US$2.2 million.

9. “That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Tears of the Azure Sea,” US$1 million.

10. “The Drama,” US$908,303.

Lindsey Bahr, The Associated Press