"Devil Wears Prada 2" is set to pass the original film’s global lifetime gross of $326.5 million today, putting the sequel ahead of the 2006 hit at the worldwide box office. Through yesterday, the film had already reached $324 million worldwide, with $101.8 million coming from its first week in the United States and $222.2 million from overseas markets.
The sequel’s second weekend is running neck-and-neck with New Line’s "Mortal Kombat II" for No. 1 in North America, with each film around $42 million in the weekend race. That duel is expected to go down to Mother’s Day, and if the current pace holds, the domestic total through ten days will reach $143.8 million. By Sunday morning, the entire franchise for both films is expected to be well past $700 million, a mark that would have been hard to imagine when the original opened in 2006.
The overseas performance is the part that turns the sequel from a strong hit into a global event. Italy leads the international market with $22.2 million, followed by the United Kingdom at $21.6 million, Brazil at $16.6 million, Mexico at $15.9 million, Japan at $13.1 million and Australia at $12.9 million. Germany is at $11.7 million, China at $11.6 million, France is near $11 million, Korea is near $7 million, Spain is at $6.4 million and Argentina is at $4.3 million.
That matters because Italy is now the leading offshore territory, a rare result for a Hollywood movie, and Milan makes a big cameo in the film. The sequel reunites director David Frankel with Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci, and its rollout has been aided by a long list of promo partners including Dior, Tiffany & Co, Diet Coke, Hilton, GE Cafe, Google, Grey Goose, Lancôme, L’Oréal Paris, Samsung, Smartwater, Starbucks, Zillow, TRESemmé, United Airlines and Mercedes Benz’s new Maybach S-Class. The broader backdrop is a box office rebound in Italy after Covid, which has helped make the film’s overseas run stand out even more.
For now, the answer to the only question that matters is clear: "Devil Wears Prada 2" has not just matched the original’s reach, it is about to surpass it, and it is doing so with a rare overseas surge that has turned Milan into more than a setting — it has made the city part of the sales pitch.
