4 May 2026 | Hollywood, California
HOLLYWOOD – Gird your loins. Miranda Priestly is back – and she is crushing the box office like an unprepared assistant's soul.
The Devil Wears Prada 2 has had a huge opening weekend, making $233 million worldwide from an overwhelmingly female audience. The sequel, which finds Anne Hathaway's Andy Sachs working once more for Meryl Streep's legendary Miranda Priestly at a much-depleted Runway magazine, earned $77 million at the North American box office and $156.6 million internationally.
By every metric, this is the highest opening weekend for a Meryl Streep film, besting the $90 million worldwide debut for Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again in 2018. It is also the biggest international and global launch for Emily Blunt, topping Oppenheimer's $180.4 million worldwide opening weekend.
⚡ BY THE NUMBERS: $233m worldwide • $77m domestic • $156.6m international • 76% female audience • Highest Streep opening ever • Biggest Blunt launch ever (topping Oppenheimer)
The Summer Season's Unlikely Queen
This weekend marks the start of Hollywood's summer movie season, a crucial 18-week corridor that runs through Labor Day and sometimes accounts for about 40% 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 the Michael Jackson biopic 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."
It is incredibly rare for a female-skewing movie to lead the first weekend of the US summer box office, which has largely been owned by Marvel movies in recent years. Prada did better business than last year's summer kickoff Marvel movie, Thunderbolts. The sequel bumped Michael to second place, though the musical biopic held on in its second weekend to earn $54 million, falling only 44%.
The Fashion-Forward Blitz: From Tokyo to the Oscars
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 real-life Vogue editor-in-chief who inspired Streep's Miranda Priestly, has been involved this time, appearing with Hathaway on the Oscars stage and with Streep on the cover of Vogue.
The first The Devil Wears Prada opened in June 2006 and earned more than $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 script: "Gird your loins." "Groundbreaking." "That's all."
Two decades later, the sequel has tapped directly into that cultural reservoir. Women made up about 76% of the ticket buyers, according to PostTrak exit polls; 74% said they would "definitely recommend" the movie to friends.
— Production notes
Critics Mixed, Audiences Enamored
Critics were a bit mixed on the sequel. Some found the film's commentary on the depleted media landscape poignant; others felt it lacked the sharp bite of the original. But for the audience that showed up in droves, the verdict was clear: they wanted to spend time with these characters again.
The $100 million production budget is a significant boost from the first movie's $35 million, but as filmmaker David Frankel told the Associated Press, "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."
The North American box office is running about 14% up from 2025, with about $2.8 billion in domestic ticket sales to date. The Devil Wears Prada 2 has given the industry a much-needed boost at the perfect moment.
A Cultural Phenomenon, Two Decades in the Making
The original The Devil Wears Prada arrived in 2006 as a modestly budgeted comedy about the fashion industry. It became a sleeper hit, then a cultural touchstone. Lines from the film entered the lexicon. Miranda Priestly became one of Streep's most iconic roles – which is saying something for an actress with three Oscars and a filmography that includes Sophie's Choice, Kramer vs. Kramer, and The Iron Lady.
The sequel had to justify its existence. It had to navigate the absence of some beloved characters (RIP, Nigel). It had to find a reason for Andy Sachs to return to the magazine she once fled. And somehow, despite all the obstacles, it worked.
📊 Box Office Breakdown:
- Worldwide opening: $233 million
- North America: $77 million
- International: $156.6 million
- Production budget: $100 million
- Female audience: 76%
- Would definitely recommend: 74%
- Previous Streep record (Mamma Mia 2): $90m
- Previous Blunt record (Oppenheimer): $180.4m
The Takeaway: Girls (and Women) Just Wanna Have Fun at the Movies
For years, Hollywood has treated female-driven films as niche – as counterprogramming to the "real" blockbusters. The Devil Wears Prada 2 proves otherwise. When given the right material, the right stars, and the right marketing, women will show up. In unprecedented numbers.
"It's this irresistible combination," Dergarabedian said. He was talking about the summer box office, but he could have been describing the film itself: a perfect alchemy of nostalgia, star power, and a script that knows exactly what its audience wants.
Gird your loins, indeed. Miranda Priestly may not be impressed – nothing ever impresses her. But the box office? That's all.
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