Two decades after the release of the original, The Devil Wears Prada 2 has stylishly outshone its predecessor at the box office, opening to a robust US$77 million in North America more than three times the original’s unadjusted US$27.5 million debut.

The Walt Disney/20th Century Studios sequel led the unofficial kickoff of the summer movie season, dominating the box office with $77 million domestically and $233.6 million globally in its first May weekend, according to Comscore.

The 2006 original, a mostly female‑focused film that debuted to $27.5 million, has found even broader appeal with this sequel, drawing theatergoers across age groups from 25–54, as well as Gen Z and millennials.

The film’s strong performance is mirrored by its ad strategy: the film spent a modest $14.3 million on national TV advertising, with 3,401 ad airings delivering 833 million impressions. Key viewing drivers included NBC’s “Primetime in Milan: The Olympics” and ABC’s “Good Morning America,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” and “American Idol.”

In terms of “attention” scores, the top responders were CBS’s “68th Annual Grammy Awards,” ABC’s “The Oscars,” and “Good Morning America,” registering attention indices between 115 and 120 indicating that ads on these programs performed 15–20% better than expected. ABC’s “The View” delivered one of the highest scores, with an index of roughly 145.

The film’s success felt almost inevitable. Its trailer broke records with 222 million views in 24 hours, and the return of Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Stanley Tucci, and Emily Blunt brought a powerful nostalgia factor.

Directors David Frankel and writer Aline Brosh McCenna also reprised their roles, further cementing the film’s link to the original.

In The Devil Wears Prada 2, Andy Sachs (Hathaway), now a features editor at Runway, reunites with Miranda Priestly (Streep), who must rely on her former assistant, Emily Charlton (Blunt), as they navigate the decline of traditional magazine publishing.

The sequel continues the story of the 2003 novel by Lauren Weisberger, in which an aspiring journalist, Andy, joins a fashion magazine only to face the demands of editor Miranda.

The main cast is joined by returning stars Tracie Thoms and Tibor Feldman as Lily and Irv Ravitz, alongside new additions such as Lucy Liu, Kenneth Branagh, Simone Ashley, Justin Theroux, Patrick Brammall, Caleb Hearon, Pauline Chalamet, B.J. Novak, and Conrad Ricamora.

The top five box office spots are all holdovers, led by The Devil Wears Prada 2. In second place, Lionsgate’s biopic Michael about singer Michael Jackson earned another $54 million domestically in its second weekend, bringing its global total to $423 million.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie sits at No. 3 with an additional $12.1 million, pushing its worldwide haul above $900 million. The sci‑fi sleeper Project Hail Mary surpassed $600 million globally, while horror film Hokum, starring Adam Scott, opened at No. 5 with $6.5 million.