The Devil Wears Prada 2 Is Reshaping Fashion’s Relationship With Hollywood
By Runway Magazine Editorial Team | June 7, 2026
The Devil Wears Prada 2 opened on May 1, 2026, in one of the year’s defining box office 2026 moments. In its first weekend it earned $77 million in the United States and $156.6 million internationally — a global total of $233.6 million. That made it the second-highest MPA global opening of 2026 to that point. By June 2026, its total worldwide gross had reached $666.1 million, making it the fourth highest-grossing film of the year. The box office figures are significant for reasons that go beyond studio economics. They represent fashion movies reclaiming cultural relevance at a moment when the fashion industry is navigating significant transitions. at a moment when the fashion industry itself is navigating significant transitions. The Devil Wears Prada 2 is not just a sequel. It is the most commercially powerful statement fashion entertainment has made in a generation.
Why the Numbers Matter
The original Devil Wears Prada, released in June 2006, earned $326 million worldwide on a $35 million budget. It became something larger than its box office: a cultural document of how the fashion industry operated at the height of the print magazine era.
Notably, it has never stopped being quoted, referenced, or rewatched. Nielsen confirmed streaming viewership for the 2006 film surged 428% from March to April 2026 — the month before the sequel opened. That figure tells a specific story about the genre’s cross-generational hold on audiences. That figure alone tells a specific story about the genre’s cross-generational hold on audiences. The original film did not just age. It deepened. The sequel, according to audience data, delivered on the deepening. It earned an 87% Rotten Tomatoes Verified Moviegoers score, a 4.5/5 PostTrak score, and an “A-” CinemaScore. Women made up approximately 76% of ticket buyers, with 74% saying they would “definitely recommend” it.
What the Sequel Gets Right About Fashion Now
David Frankel directed the sequel and Aline Brosh McKenna wrote it — the same team behind the 2006 original. The original main cast all returned: Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci as Nigel. New cast members include Kenneth Branagh as Miranda’s husband, Lady Gaga, Lucy Liu, Justin Theroux, Simone Ashley, Pauline Chalamet, B.J. Novak, and Conrad Ricamora. Tracie Thoms and Tibor Feldman also reprise their original roles as Lily and Irv.
The film’s plot reflects twenty years of actual fashion industry evolution. Two decades after leaving Runway, Andy Sachs has become a respected reporter in New York City. Her entire newsroom gets laid off by text during an awards gala. Miranda, meanwhile, faces fire for publishing a puff piece about a brand using sweatshop labor. Irv Ravitz — owner of parent company Elias-Clarke — hires Andy as features editor without Miranda’s consent, much to Miranda’s considerable annoyance. The sequel’s themes are not decorative. Indeed, influencers hold power in the world it portrays. Vintage is in. Comfort matters. The Globe and Mail called it “a love letter to fashion over the years, with nods to iconic outfits from the original (such as a cerulean sweater vest) plus new fashion memories for viewers.”
The Costume Strategy
Sourcing costumes for the sequel was significantly easier than for the original. During the 2006 production, designers were reportedly afraid to lend their clothes — they risked being blacklisted by Wintour. Two decades later, that dynamic has inverted. A design showcase of the highest order resulted — “chock-full of looks from major designers, including Dior, Balenciaga and Margiela.” This is how high-end designer campaigns — luxury fashion campaigns — work in a successful Hollywood film. That is what its designer costume strategy delivers. The fashion industry’s changed relationship with Hollywood — from caution to active enthusiasm — is part of the story the sequel tells. That change is the second-order narrative.
The Milan location scenes made that relationship explicit. On September 27, 2025, during production, Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci appeared as Miranda and Nigel at the Dolce & Gabbana Spring/Summer 2026 runway show at Milan Fashion Week. Streep wore Miranda’s customary sunglasses and a D&G vinyl trenchcoat; Tucci wore a sleek gray suit with dark shades. D&G confirmed the sequence was filmed for inclusion in the sequel. Throughout the show, the characters consulted — their eyes tracking the runway as models passed. The D&G collection riffed on nightwear — cozy pajamas with rhinestone details, black sheer lingerie, and footwear from stilettos to fuzzy slippers. That scene — a fictional fashion editor watching an actual luxury runway show within an actual fashion calendar moment — represents something rarely attempted. It collapsed the boundary between fashion fiction and fashion reality in a single afternoon of filming.
The Cultural Moment Behind the Numbers
the sequel arrived in theaters at a specific cultural inflection point. Variety noted in July 2025 that fashion magazines are no longer the cultural forces they once were. The original film “has arguably outlasted both, enduring as one of the sharpest comedies of the 21st century,” Variety noted in July 2025. The sequel’s opening weekend commercially confirms that assessment. Already, the $233.6 million global debut was the highest opening weekend ever for Meryl Streep across all markets. For a film anchored in fashion world satire, that figure is remarkable. Paul Dergarabedian at Comscore called it “an irresistible hit movie that had appeal not just in the United States but also around the world.”
Anna Wintour’s participation was central to the marketing campaign — a Hollywood fashion event unprecedented in scope. Wintour appeared with Hathaway on the Oscars stage and with Streep on the cover of Vogue. That would have been almost unthinkable in 2006, when Wintour’s guardianship made the original film a matter of considerable delicacy. The sequel’s global publicity campaign included glamorous stops in Tokyo, London, and New York, with all four lead actors participating. This is, above all, high-end fashion culture working at Hollywood scale. For more on the film’s entertainment and fashion industry crossover story, explore Runway’s summer movies and Hollywood comeback season coverage.
What It Means for Fashion and Film
Released on November 12, 2025, the teaser trailer was set to Madonna’s “Vogue.” Within 24 hours, it had accumulated 181.5 million views — the most-viewed comedy trailer in 15 years. Fashion cinema had not generated that kind of immediate response in a very long time. That alone is significant. Cultural circuitry between fashion imagery, music, film, and audience attention is, the numbers suggest, still intact. That circuitry had never broken — it was simply dormant. Those original needle drops — the Andy Sachs transformation to “Suddenly I See” — remain the most-cited examples of fashion cinema’s capacity to make luxury aspirational for audiences who would never buy the clothes.
The Soundtrack Dimension
Lady Gaga and Doechii performed the sequel’s original song “Runway,” previewed in the final trailer on April 6, 2026. The single released officially on April 10. The pairing of Gaga — whose own career has always been inseparable from fashion culture — and Doechii signals the film’s deliberate positioning at the intersection of the fashion film category and contemporary music culture. That single is a statement about the kind of cultural territory the sequel is claiming. It is not simply a fashion movie. It is a fashion sequel with genuine cultural ambitions — a fashion event of the year.
What It Means for Fashion and Film
The fashion industry’s relationship with Hollywood has always been complicated. The original Devil Wears Prada was, famously, an ambivalent depiction of luxury magazine culture. Celebrity fashion is central to how a films work commercially from which it drew its source material.
Designers were cautious about participation. Anna Wintour was publicly ambivalent. Two decades later, however, the sequel is a fully sanctioned production: designers actively participating, Wintour on the Vogue cover with Streep, the film inside an actual Milan fashion show. In 2026, the industry understands what it did not in 2006: that a commercially successful the film is among the most effective luxury fashion culture vehicles imaginable. Consider how the original film made cerulean a word that people outside the industry actually know. With $666.1 million in global box office, the sequel has the scale to do something comparable for the fashion industry’s 2026 concerns — influencer culture, sustainability, the shifting relationship between editors and the digital world. Those concerns are still being defined. The fashion trends 2026 conversation will carry some of this film’s influence.
Fortune’s opening weekend box office report confirms the sequel earned $233.6 million globally — including $77 million domestically — from an audience that was 76% female. The Walt Disney Company’s opening weekend statement confirms the sequel delivered the second-highest MPA international opening of 2026 and Streep’s highest opening weekend ever. For all the fashion industry news and celebrity entertainment coverage that matters in 2026, trust Runway’s full coverage.
