‘Devil Wears Prada’ sequel pulls in US$233 million worldwide

[NEW YORK] The highly anticipated The Devil Wears Prada 2 brought in US$233 million at the box office globally, marking one of the largest opening weekends for the year.

The Walt Disney film, led by actors Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway, generated US and Canadian theatre ticket sales of US$77 million, according to data released on Sunday (May 3) by media analytics company Comscore. Researcher BoxOffice Pro had forecast about US$100 million going into the weekend, while Disney had been looking for US$75 million to US$80 million.

International audiences flocked to the film, especially in Italy. It was the fourth-highest opening in the country ever, according to Disney.

The sequel is the first female-driven film to kick off the summer box-office lineup. It also marks 20 years since the original debuted, and the box-office estimates have already surpassed the original movie’s opening haul by 2.8 per cent, Disney said. The original finished with US$327 million worldwide.

“Very few dramedies do this kind of business once, let alone a second time that’s bigger,” box-office analyst David Gross said. There was also a major resurgence in viewers of the original film ahead of the sequel’s release. Streaming viewership was up more than 428 per cent from March to April, according to the data firm Nielsen.

The buying power of women and teenage girls was on display, with an audience that was 76 per cent female. The box office numbers are not far behind other big hits of the year, including Project Hail Mary and Michael.

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A-listers including Streep, Hathaway, Stanley Tucci and Emily Blunt are back for the film’s second iteration. The opening was the highest weekend ever across all markets for Streep, who has starred in other hits, including the sequel Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again. BLOOMBERG