For more than a decade, the summer movie season would traditionally kick off with a Marvel movie on the first weekend of May. But with “Avengers: Doomsday” leaving that slot for the holidays, a very different kind of sequel — and a very different core audience — will fill that role: 20th Century’s “The Devil Wears Prada 2.”
And it could fill that role very well. While independent trackers are projecting a domestic opening weekend of at least $73 million, the presales for this legacyquel to the 2000s dramedy are exceeding those of “Project Hail Mary,” which opened to $80.5 million.
Exhibition sources say they would not be surprised if “Prada 2” opens closer to the $97 million that “Michael” earned last weekend, even if the competition from that female-skewing biopic could weigh down the numbers a little.
Twenty years ago, David Frankel’s adaptation of the bestselling novel by Lauren Weisberger became one of the most iconic films in the careers of its two leads, Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep.
Hathaway’s performance as the bright-eyed journalism school grad Andy Sachs, who gets a crash course in what it takes to make it in the cutthroat world of fashion reporting, turned her from teen star in “The Princess Diaries” to a proven box office draw, getting her more serious roles including her Oscar-winning one in “Les Miserables.”
And then there was Streep, who plays the titular “devil,” fashion editor and tastemaker Miranda Priestly. Inspired by Vogue editor Anna Wintour, Priestly became synonymous with the concept of the nightmare boss for millions of moviegoers, even as they were enthralled by her withering commentary on a fashion world that seemed to mostly unimpress her.
“Prada” was a mid-budget box office success for 20th Century Fox, grossing $326 million worldwide against a reported $41 million budget. Now, as Disney looks to mine the Fox IP it acquired in 2019 from “Predator” to “Planet of the Apes,” it is a “Prada” legacyquel it turns to in order to fill the spot on its release slate left behind by “Avengers.”
And though it is no “Avengers,” “Prada 2” will at least outperform some of the more recent titles that have come from the MCU, most notably the last one to get this early May release slot: “Thunderbolts*.”
All signs point to “Prada 2” matching, and most likely exceeding, the $74.3 million opening that “Thunderbolts*” earned a year ago. From there, it should be easy to at least exceed that film’s $190.2 million domestic total, and an equal international run will help “Prada 2” pass the $382.4 million global total of “Thunderbolts*.”
Whether that says more about the cultural legacy of “The Devil Wears Prada” or the MCU’s struggles to get a wider audience interested in new superheroes and teams the way it used to is a matter of perspective. For now, we will focus on the former, because “Prada 2” is the culmination of months of films from various studios specifically aimed towards women.
Trailers for this film played back in December in front of Lionsgate’s hit thriller “The Housemaid,” and have stayed in front of movies aimed at a similar core demo like Warner Bros.’ “Wuthering Heights” and Universal’s “Reminders of Him” and “You, Me & Tuscany.”
While not all of those films became breakout hits — “You, Me & Tuscany” only grossed $20.3 million globally — this is a level of consistent output for women that Hollywood hasn’t demonstrated in quite some time. And now with “Prada 2,” that output extends to the domain of legacyquels, which in recent years tend to be associated with male-skewing IPs such as “Top Gun” and “Ghostbusters.”
But the audience for “Prada 2” will be women who, like Andy, were just getting started into adulthood back in 2006 and have now settled into their 40s. It will be millennial women who helped elevate Meryl Streep from critical darling into a 2000s box office draw by turning out to films like “Prada” and “Mamma Mia!”. It will be a multi-generational fanbase that has quoted Stanley Tucci’s famous phrase “gird your loins!” for the last two decades.
And based on what critics say, they will get the comforting nostalgia they are hoping for. “Prada 2” has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 79% at time of writing, with reviews noting that the film’s returning cast is back on top form as they glide through exotic locales in gorgeous outfits, even if some critics feel that the sequel lacks the bite of the original.
Between a strong start for “Prada 2” and a solid second weekend for “Michael,” which is looking to make $40-42 million in this frame, the box office should see an overall total for the first weekend of the summer that exceeds last year’s $144 million.
But that strong start to May will likely be counterbalanced by a Memorial Day weekend that will be well below last year’s $330 million 4-day overall total, as “The Mandalorian & Grogu,” the sole major tentpole of that weekend is tracking for an $80 million-plus opening that will be well short of the holiday record $182 million 4-day of “Lilo & Stitch” last year.
Gird your loins.
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