The highly anticipated The Devil Wears Prada 2 brought in $233 million worldwide for one of the biggest opening weekends of the year.
The Devil Wears Prada 2 has one of the biggest box office hits of the year
The Walt Disney Company premiere, starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway, earned $77 million from theaters across the United States and Canada, according to data released Sunday by media analytics firm Comscore.
Industry tracker Boxoffice Pro projected an opening closer to $100 million, while Disney estimated domestic sales between $75 million and $80 million.
The sequel also played very well overseas, with international audiences turning out in large numbers. Italy proved to be one of the film’s strongest markets, recording the fourth-highest opening weekend in the country’s cinema history, according to Disney.
The film is the first female-led film to open this summer’s box office season, and comes two decades after the original The Devil Wears Prada premiered in 2006. Disney’s sequel has already topped the original’s weekend earnings by 2.8 percent, according to early estimates. The first film grossed $327 million worldwide during its theatrical release.
“Very few playwrights do this kind of business once, let alone a second time when it’s bigger,” box office analyst David Gross said in a recent blog post.
The interest in the sequel was also reflected in the renewed viewership of the original film. According to Nielsen data, viewership for the first film increased by more than 428 percent between March and April before the sequel was released.
Opening weekend figures also highlighted the strong buying power of female audiences and teenage girls, with women making up 76 percent of moviegoers. The performance puts the sequel right behind some of this year’s biggest box office hits, including Project Hail Mary and Michael.
Several members of the original cast returned for the sequel, including Streep, Hathaway, Stanley Tucci and Emily Blunt.
The release also marks the biggest opening weekend of Meryl Streep’s career across all markets, adding another milestone to a filmography that includes global hits such as Mamma Mia! Here we are again.
