Disney's The Devil Wears Prada 2 has officially crossed the $600 million worldwide threshold, a milestone the original 2006 film never reached even on its full theatrical run. As of this past weekend, the sequel had banked about $201 million in North America and $412 million across overseas markets, becoming only the fourth Hollywood release of 2026 to clear the $600 million line and the highest-grossing live-action title Disney's 20th Century Studios has released this year. For a film greenlit on a $100 million production budget and pitched as a 20-years-later legacy comedy rather than a four-quadrant tentpole, the sustained run has reset what studios think a mid-budget adult title can do in 2026.
The numbers are striking because the genre is not. The Devil Wears Prada 2 is not a superhero franchise, an animated event film, or a live-action remake of a Disney classic. It is a Meryl Streep–Anne Hathaway reunion with no toy line, no theme-park ride, and no shared universe, and yet it has out-earned every entry in 2026's superhero slate so far. Industry trackers have been openly using the result as a stick to beat the comic-book genre, with several writing that the gap between a workplace comedy sequel and a tights-and-cape feature has never looked this wide.
What Happened
The Devil Wears Prada 2 opened on May 1, 2026 across 4,150 North American theaters and pulled in roughly $77 million during its first three days, the biggest Streep-led opening of her career and a debut nearly three times larger than the $27.5 million that the 2006 original launched with two decades ago. Internationally the sequel added about $156.6 million, taking its worldwide opening to $233.6 million and giving Disney its second-largest live-action global debut of the year, behind only the studio's earlier The Super Mario Galaxy Movie release.
From there the film held remarkably well. Week two on May 8–10 it dropped only 44 percent domestically to about $43 million, despite Warner Bros. opening Mortal Kombat II the same weekend. By the time the fourth weekend wrapped on May 24, the film had crossed the $600 million worldwide threshold and remained inside the global top three, with a worldwide running total of roughly $613 million reported through May 26. As Variety noted, that result puts Prada 2 on the same shortlist as Michael, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and Project Hail Mary as the only Hollywood titles to clear the line so far this year.
Audiences were enthusiastic. CinemaScore polled an A− grade from opening crowds, with roughly 75 percent of the audience identifying as women, an unusually heavy skew even for a fashion-world comedy. Critics were warmer than the trailers suggested, landing a Metacritic score of 63 and a "generally favorable" verdict, and reviewers singled out Streep's renewed bite as Miranda Priestly and Stanley Tucci's Nigel as the emotional anchors of the new film. The supporting bench is also unusually deep: Lucy Liu, Kenneth Branagh, Justin Theroux, Simone Ashley, B.J. Novak, and Lady Gaga all turn up in named roles.
Why It Matters
The headline industry story here is not that a sequel made money. It is that an adult-skewing comedy with no franchise scaffolding has out-performed nearly every IP-heavy bet Hollywood placed this spring. The Devil Wears Prada 2 sits comfortably above this year's superhero entries, ahead of multiple animated sequels, and within striking distance of Disney's own tentpole numbers, all on a budget that would be considered modest by Marvel or Pixar standards.
For Disney, the timing is convenient. The studio has spent much of 2026 navigating box-office volatility in its franchise slate, and a strong original-ish performer from 20th Century Studios gives CEO Bob Iger something concrete to wave at investors when discussing the post-Marvel-fatigue strategy. Disney noted the sequel as the highest opening weekend of Streep's career across domestic, international, and global metrics, and the studio has already pushed past the $2 billion mark in 2026 worldwide grosses on the strength of Prada 2 together with earlier releases.
The broader read is about the so-called middle of the market. For most of the last five years, executives have argued that audiences would either watch a four-quadrant blockbuster theatrically or wait for a streaming drop, and that mid-budget adult comedies and dramas were structurally dead in cinemas. The Devil Wears Prada 2 has just put $613 million through that thesis. Fortune's analysis framed it as possibly the last great win for Hollywood's IP machine, but a more interesting framing is that it is also the strongest argument in years for original-feeling, character-driven sequels aimed squarely at adults.
Reaction
Industry trade press has been quietly relieved. Box office observers spent the first quarter of 2026 watching superhero opens underperform projections, and a string of mid-tier originals failing to find audiences. Then a comedy sequel from a director who had not made a theatrical feature in years walked in and held the top spot for two straight weekends against new competition. Deadline framed it as Prada "pulling ahead" of Mortal Kombat II in their second-weekend matchup, and Boxoffice Pro called the Mother's Day frame a "KO" win.
Audience reaction has split along generational lines in an interesting way. Millennial viewers who grew up with the 2006 original have driven the repeat-viewing engine, while a notable Gen Z contingent appears to be encountering the Andy-Miranda-Emily trio for the first time and treating the sequel as the entry point. Social platforms have been awash with side-by-side fit checks comparing Hathaway's 2026 Andy with her 2006 Andy, and short-form clips of Streep's new "florals, for spring" equivalent line have racked up tens of millions of views in the weeks since release.
Even the international run has been notable. Korea, which is usually a slower play for Hollywood adult comedies, saw Prada 2 climb to the No. 1 box-office position in its second weekend over local titles, which trade press treated as a meaningful read on overseas appetite for the franchise. The film also delivered the second-largest MPA international opening of any film in 2026, behind only Mario Galaxy.
What's Next
The immediate question is how much further the legs go. With a 44 percent second-weekend drop and a sub-50 percent fourth-weekend hold, the sequel is on a multiplier curve that suggests a final domestic finish comfortably above $240 million and a worldwide cume that could push toward $700–750 million if international markets continue to hold. That would push the film into the same financial neighborhood as Disney's animated tentpoles, on roughly a quarter of the budget.
After theaters, the film is widely expected to land on Hulu and Disney+ later this year, where Disney can convert the theatrical conversation into subscriber retention. Internal projections leaked to several trade publications suggested an unusually long theatrical window for this release class, on the bet that the fashion-week setpieces and ensemble cast will keep drawing repeat business through summer. A premium video-on-demand window before streaming is also on the table, mirroring the approach Disney took with its other recent live-action hits.
Awards-season chatter has already started, somewhat improbably for a workplace comedy sequel. Streep is being floated for a Golden Globes comedy or musical nomination, Tucci is getting supporting buzz, and the film's costume design and production design are essentially guaranteed craft conversations. Whether any of that converts into Oscar attention is unclear, but the studio is expected to mount at least a modest campaign once Hulu has the film in its catalog.
Closing Thoughts
What The Devil Wears Prada 2 has demonstrated most clearly is that nostalgia, when handled with a working script and a returning cast that still has chemistry, can still command theatrical pricing. The 2006 original was a sleeper that critics underestimated and audiences turned into a long-tail hit; the sequel arrived already a known commodity and was treated as an event from frame one. That is a useful template for the studios sitting on dormant late-1990s and 2000s IP and wondering whether a 20-years-later sequel can still travel.
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It is also a useful reminder that adult audiences will show up for theatrical comedy when the proposition is specific. Prada 2 is not pitched as a generic comedy; it is pitched as a particular set of characters in a particular world, with the cultural shorthand of a print magazine business now confronting a TikTok-and-creator economy. That specificity, more than the brand, appears to be what is driving the result. Studios reading the box-office report should probably internalize that lesson before they greenlight the next round of vague nostalgia plays.
The next test for the sequel comes in the next two weekends, as Mission: Impossible and a handful of summer event films enter the marketplace. If Prada 2 can hold third or fourth position into early June, the path to $700 million worldwide is realistic. Either way, the film has already done something rare in 2026: it has made a mid-budget Hollywood live-action sequel feel like an event, and it has made a 20-year gap between installments look less like a risk and more like a feature.
한글 요약
디즈니 산하 20세기 스튜디오가 5월 1일 북미에서 공개한 코미디 속편 악마는 프라다를 입는다 2가 개봉 4주 만에 전 세계 6억 달러 흥행을 돌파했습니다. 5월 24일 기준 북미 약 2억 달러, 해외 약 4억 1,200만 달러를 더해 글로벌 누적 약 6억 1,300만 달러를 기록 중이며, 2026년 들어 6억 달러 선을 넘은 할리우드 영화는 이 작품을 포함해 단 네 편뿐입니다. 제작비 1억 달러 규모의 중예산 작품이 슈퍼히어로·애니메이션 대작을 제치고 거둔 성과라는 점에서, 업계는 "어른 관객을 겨냥한 캐릭터 중심 속편이 여전히 극장에서 통한다"는 신호로 받아들이는 분위기입니다.
오프닝 주말 북미 7,700만 달러, 글로벌 2억 3,360만 달러는 메릴 스트립 주연작 사상 최대 오프닝이자, 2006년 1편의 2,750만 달러 오프닝을 거의 3배 가까이 뛰어넘는 수치입니다. 메릴 스트립과 앤 해서웨이, 에밀리 블런트, 스탠리 투치 등 원작 멤버가 모두 복귀했고, 루시 리우, 케네스 브래나, 저스틴 서룩스, 시몬 애슐리, B.J. 노박, 레이디 가가 등 신규 캐스트가 합류해 메타크리틱 63점, 시네마스코어 A−라는 우호적 평을 받았습니다. 한국 박스오피스에서도 두 번째 주말 1위에 오르며 글로벌 흥행세를 입증했습니다.
관전 포인트는 시상식 시즌과 스트리밍 이관입니다. 디즈니는 연내 훌루·디즈니플러스 동시 공개를 통해 극장 흥행 대화를 구독자 유지 동력으로 전환할 가능성이 큽니다. 골든글로브 코미디·뮤지컬 부문 후보 거론, 의상·미술 부문 크래프트 캠페인도 예상되는 흐름입니다. 향후 2주 동안 미션 임파서블 등 여름 대작과의 경쟁에서 3~4위권을 유지한다면, 최종 글로벌 7억 달러 돌파까지도 무리가 없다는 분석이 나옵니다. 2000년대 IP를 보유한 스튜디오들이 "20년 만의 속편"이라는 카드를 다시 들여다보게 만든 사례입니다.