The Devil Wears Prada 2

20th Century

While it may be a risk to attempt to make lightning strike twice with a classic movie like The Devil Wears Prada, it appears to have panned out for the film. So far, it’s not only matched the classic, it has surpassed its reviews so far on a few fronts, if only just.

With well over 100 reviews in, The Devil Wears Prada 2 has a certified fresh 79% on Rotten Tomatoes, compared to the 75% of the original.

On IMDB, The Devil Wears Prada 2 has a 7.1/10, inching by the original’s 7.0/10.

The catch here, of course, is that one movie has been out for 20 years, arriving in 2006 if you want to feel extremely old. So on the audience side, when those scores roll in on Rotten Tomatoes especially, they’re going to be miles away from the 250,000 reviews in for The Devil Wears Prada that have been amassed over two decades (it currently stands at a 76% there).

In terms of box office, The Devil Wears Prada went on to earn $326 million at the box office in 2006, which, if you adjust for inflation, is more like $538 million. I have little doubt that The Devil Wears Prada 2 will probably end up beating both of those figures. Right now, the sequel is projected to earn between $75 and $85 million domestically its opening weekend, which would likely more than triple the original’s $27 million domestic opening. But that movie was only made for $35 million. Meryl Streep’s reported salary alone for the sequel is around $20 million. Obviously, the profiles of Emily Blunt and Anne Hathaway have been elevated in the last 20 years as well, as they were more or less just starting out back then.

Why hasn’t The Devil Wears Prada 2 lost a step? Here’s a sampling of reviews:

• Boston Globe – “Miranda is given more depth this time, which softens her just a tad, but it forces the viewer to root for her success. That would bug me, but “The Devil Wears Prada 2” successfully gives journalists a bigger villain to hiss at and resent.”
• The Atlantic – “It has plenty of breezy fun probing the dilemmas of modern media, without abandoning the glitz that made the original so enduring.”
• The Times UK – “It helps too, of course, that Streep has a handy foil in Hathaway, who once again injects Andy with just the right hint of perky naivety to maintain her status as the clueless straight woman to her co-star’s scheming diva.”

While Streep is obviously the biggest presence, there is a lot of praise for Anne Hathaway returning to the part, who will need a big hit like this after her just-released Mother Mary film opened with just $1.5 million worldwide. And she’s about to see this movie earn many multiples of that. We’ll know more by Sunday.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.