The Devil Wears Prada 2 opens to $233.6 million worldwide, second-best of 2026

$233.6 million worldwide in a single opening weekend is the kind of result Hollywood notices. Disney said The Devil Wears Prada 2 launched with $77 million domestically and $156.6 million internationally, making it the second-highest Motion Picture Association global opening of 2026 so far and giving the studio a rare live test of whether adult, female-skewing theatrical movies can still travel at scale.

The opening also turned a 20-year-old title into a modern commercial bet. Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci all returned, with David Frankel back in the director’s chair, and Disney moved the film into theaters on May 1, 2026 after a world premiere at Lincoln Center in New York City on April 20. Disney+ later made a replay of the premiere livestream available, extending the event’s reach beyond the room where the cast and studio brass gathered.

The numbers give Disney a bigger opening than the first film ever imagined. The original 2006 The Devil Wears Prada grossed $326.7 million worldwide on a budget of about $35 million, opening domestically to $27,537,244 and finishing with about $124.7 million in North America. The sequel’s reported production budget, about $100 million before marketing, shows how much more the studio is staking on the property this time, even before the full cost of release and promotion is counted.

Early reaction has been helped by the film’s pop-culture timing. Variety reported that the sequel includes commentary and cameo material aimed at Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos, a sign that the story is still being used to needle power and status even as it leans on the appeal of Miranda Priestly’s world. First reactions from the press called the film “charming” and “genuinely heartwarming,” and predicted it would be “a massive hit.”

For Disney, the launch is more than a nostalgia exercise. It suggests a path for legacy sequels that are built around adult characters, recognizable stars and a defined point of view, not just noise and spectacle. If The Devil Wears Prada 2 can sustain even a fraction of this opening, it will strengthen the argument that studios do not need every tentpole to come from superheroes, fantasy universes or effects-first franchises to justify a global theatrical rollout.