Devil Wears Prada sequel opens with $77 million, tops box office

Hollywood’s latest franchise bet paid off fast. “The Devil Wears Prada” sequel opened to $77 million domestically and $233.6 million worldwide, giving Disney and 20th Century Studios a launch that immediately vaulted the film to the top of the box office and underscored how far nostalgia can carry a known property.

The film opened in 4,150 North American theaters and took in $156.6 million internationally, according to studio totals. Produced for roughly $100 million before marketing, it arrived with a scale that only made sense because the brand was already proven. The original “The Devil Wears Prada” opened to $27.5 million domestically in 2006 and went on to earn $125 million in the United States and $326 million worldwide, numbers the sequel has now already surpassed in global momentum after one weekend.

The draw was not just the title. David Frankel returned to direct, Aline Brosh McKenna returned to write, and Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci all reprised the roles that made the original a pop-culture fixture. The new story picks up two decades later, with Andy Sachs back at Runway as a features editor while magazine publishing continues to shrink around her. That premise gives the sequel a built-in emotional hook for viewers who aged with the first film and now recognize the industry changes it is playing against.

The studio leaned hard into that memory. Trailers highlighted new music by Lady Gaga and Doechii, and the campaign leaned on callbacks that longtime fans would instantly recognize. Anna Wintour also helped turn the release into a larger fashion event, appearing with Anne Hathaway at the 2026 Oscars in a playful nod to the film’s legacy and later in a Vogue moment tied to the sequel. The crossover between Hollywood satire and the fashion establishment it once skewered has only strengthened the brand’s cultural reach.

The result was the biggest opening weekend for a traditional comedy in 11 years, a sharp reminder that adult-skewing originals have a much harder path to a mass audience. Studios keep finding the same answer: when a recognizable title, a returning cast and a pre-sold emotional memory line up, audiences still show up in force.