Runway is back, and it’s more popular than ever. 20 years after the release of the first film, The Devil Wears Prada 2 has exceeded expectations in fine fashion, opening to a strong US$77 million in North America, more than threefold ticket sales of the original (US$27.5 million, not adjusted for inflation).
Internationally, it collected another US$156.6 million, bringing the global tally to US$233.6 million for the weekend. The 20th Century and Disney sequel is expected to outperform its predecessor’s lifetime haul in a few weeks, with the domestic figures coming in as the fourth-best start of the year, behind Project Hail Mary (S$80 million), Michael (US$97.5 million), and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (US$131 million).
The box office success was perhaps written in the stars — its trailer debuted to a record-breaking 222 million views in 24 hours, and the full reunion of original cast members Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Stanley Tucci, and Emily Blunt made for powerful nostalgia fuel. Both David Frankel and Aline Brosh McKenna also returned to direct and write the follow-up.
In The Devil Wears Prada 2, Andy Sachs (Hathaway), now a features editor at Runway magazine, reunites with Miranda Priestly (Streep), who’s now forced to rely on her former assistant, Emily Charlton (Blunt), as they navigate their careers amid the decline of traditional magazine publishing. The first movie, based on Lauren Weisberg’s 2003 novel, followed Andy, an aspiring journalist who gets a job at a fashion magazine but finds herself at the mercy of her demanding editor, Miranda.
Joining the main quartet are returning stars Tracie Toms and Tibor Feldman as Lily and Irv Ravitz, respectively. Additional casting includes Lucy Liu (Charlie’s Angels), Kenneth Branagh (Hercule Poirot), Simone Ashley (Bridgerton), Justin Theroux (Mulholland Drive), Patrick Brammall (Evil), Caleb Hearon (Fargo), Pauline Chalamet (The Sex Lives of College Girls), B.J. Novak (The Office), and Conrad Ricamora (How To Get Away with Murder).
The remaining chart-toppers are all holdovers, starting with Michael in the second place. The Michael Jackson biopic has racked up US$54 million at the domestic box office in its second weekend, and now sits at US$423 globally. At No. 3 is The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, adding another US$12.1 million to a worldwide haul of more than US$900 million, while the fourth-ranked sleeper hit Project Hail Mary crossed the US$600 million milestone globally. Rounding out the top five is the Adam Scott-starring horror pic Hokum, which opened to US$6.5 million.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
Kevin Low
Natalie
