The long-awaited sequel to “The Devil Wears Prada” delivered a commanding debut at the box office, pulling in $77 million in North America and $156.6 million internationally for a combined global opening of $233.6 million, easily topping the charts in its first weekend.
The Walt Disney Co.’s 20th Century Studios opened the film across 4,150 locations in North America, drawing a crowd that was 76% female according to PostTrak exit polls, with 74% of audiences saying they would “definitely recommend” the movie to friends. Critics were more mixed on the sequel, which reunites Anne Hathaway’s Andy Sachs and Meryl Streep’s Miranda Priestly at the fictional Runway magazine in a much-changed media landscape.
The film cost a reported $100 million to produce, nearly three times the $35 million budget of the 2006 original though director David Frankel noted that star salaries absorbed much of that increase. “As it turns out, 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,” he told the Associated Press.
Stars Streep, Hathaway, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci mounted a fashion-forward global publicity campaign in the weeks leading up to release, with appearances in Tokyo, London, and New York. Even Anna Wintour, the real-life inspiration for Miranda Priestly, joined the promotional effort, appearing with Hathaway at the Oscars and with Streep on the cover of Vogue.
Anticipation had been building for months. According to Nielsen, streaming viewership for the original film was up 428% between March and April 2026. The first movie opened in June 2006 and went on to earn more than $326 million worldwide, while also cementing itself as a cultural touchstone with its endlessly quotable lines.
Second place went to Lionsgate’s Michael Jackson biopic “Michael,” which held remarkably well in its second weekend, earning $54 million domestically, a drop of just 44%. The film’s worldwide running total has already reached $423.9 million. Lionsgate Motion Picture Group chairman Adam Fogelson said the result exceeded expectations. “The conventional wisdom that a new giant movie can knock out a movie that has planted itself is constantly proven inaccurate,” he said.
The weekend marks the official start of Hollywood’s summer movie season, an 18-week corridor through Labor Day that typically accounts for around 40% of the annual box office. The absence of a Marvel film to kick off the season, a common fixture in recent years went largely unnoticed given the combined firepower of the two leading titles.
“This is a really solid weekend,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at 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.” He also noted a broader trend in recent months: “Moviegoers have really embraced pure, escapist entertainment.”
‘Prada 2’ alone outperformed last year’s summer-opening Marvel entry, “Thunderbolts.”
Elsewhere in the top ten, “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” earned $12.1 million in its fifth weekend, while “Project Hail Mary” added $8.6 million in its seventh. Among new releases, Neon’s horror film “Hokum,” led by Adam Scott, debuted to $6.4 million to round out the top five. Andy Serkis’s animated adaptation of “Animal Farm” opened to $3.4 million despite poor reviews, and the Aaron Eckhart and Ben Kingsley survival thriller “Deep Water” managed $2.2 million.
The domestic box office for the year is currently running approximately 14% ahead of the same period last year, with around $2.8 billion in ticket sales to date.
Full Top Ten — Domestic Box Office
“The Devil Wears Prada 2” dominated the domestic box office, earning an estimated $77 million.
The sequel more than doubled the earnings of the second-place film, Michael, which took in $54 million. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie followed in third with $12.1 million, while Project Hail Mary earned $8.6 million in fourth place.
Hokum placed fifth with $6.4 million, followed by Animal Farm at $3.4 million. Lee Cronin’s The Mummy and Deep Water tied for seventh with $2.2 million each. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime the Movie: Tears of the Azure Sea collected $1 million in ninth, and The Drama rounded out the top ten with $908,303.
