Unless you’ve been under a rock you probably already know that the official kickoff to the summer-ish blockbuster season is the incredibly promoted sequel to a box office darling from 20 years ago, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA. Perhaps one of the most enduring remnants of the far more narcissistic oughts, the OG version was the springboard to the mercurial careers of the likes of Anne Hathaway, Stanley Tucci and Emily Blunt, and of course of the most beloved and defining roles of the prolific Meryl Streep. 
The promotion, fueled by Disney’s relentless and seemingly bottomless budgeted tentacles, has been nothing short of ubiquitous. These four, and just about anyone else even remotely associated with the film, have made the full rounds of the ABC and NBC car washes, not to mention the last vestiges of the soon-to-be extinct likes of Stephen Colbert, Kelly Clarkson (well, Willie Geist) and Access Hollywood. Tucci and Blunt just happened to receive their Hollywood Walk of Fame stars this week. And if you’re as much of a Starbuck’s addict as I am you’ve been barraged with the opportunity to order to the exact same custom drinks that Miranda, Emily, Andy and Nigel insist upon–although personally none of them are exactly what I like (nor do they generate me enough bonus points to make it worthy my while).
When it comes to driving audiences into a theatre, especially with this fickle a generation, it’s practically a knee-jerk reaction to assume that the movie itself is secondary, especially one that was as beloved and appreciated as the first. But the apparent truth is that much like the audience and Hathaway’s inspirational Andy–and yes, even Streep’s Torquemada-ish Miranda– THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2 has matured into a more complex and deeper journey than the first. At least so sayeth THE NEW YORK TIMES’ Manohla Dargis:
Andy and Miranda are again squaring off in “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” but their antagonisms now pale next to the internet-driven, world-shaping shift that is violently upending their lives. Like the first movie, the second is a sleek diversion with brittle and sharp laughs, truckloads of couture threads and lashings of light drama. It’s strategically aspirational, presenting an ostensibly enviable world of unimaginable wealth that it critiques with a straight face before its characters slip into a car with a six-figure price tag. Now a serious, award-winning journalist, Andy talks about scoring pre-owned couture finds and addresses the ethics of expensive apartments not long before she moves into her own.
One of the facile pleasures of the first movie is that its knowing, winking approach to the hyperbolic excesses of Miranda and her minions discouraged you from thinking too hard about the real costs (personal, social, environmental) of this high-flying world. The second movie, by contrast, turns on a series of crises, beginning with two grimly familiar ones — Andy loses her job when her publication shuts down, and Runway is caught up in a sweatshop scandal — that set the stage for the larger, existential catastrophe to come. Soon after being laid off, Andy returns to Runway to help repair its reputation, a rescue mission that grows more intense because of the financial threats facing the magazine and its dominatrix-in-chief.
Journalism’s agonies give the sequel a touch more heft than the original, though in truth the troubles that continue to rock the Fourth Estate are only part of what has unsettled Andy and Miranda as well as their colleagues. Also back in action are Emily Blunt’s viperish Emily, another of Miranda’s former assistants; and Stanley Tucci’s Nigel, Miranda’s suave, unerringly faithful second. Emily now works at Dior, which means that the brand is heavily featured throughout the movie. She’s also still giving Andy grief, a role that she embraces ferociously when she hooks up with a tech billionaire, Benji Barnes (an unrecognizable Justin Theroux as a Jeff Bezos type), a loutish smiler who’s far more monstrous than Miranda ever could be.
Dargis’ enthusaism is apparently not an outlier for a change, as FORBES’ prolific Paul Tassi confirmed yesterday:
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…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.
As the outsized results of last weekend’s fringier MICHAEL reminded, a movie doesn’t necessarily have to be good to be popular. Much like any other reunion, the anticipation of spending a few hours with someone who people who once were a lot more present in one’s life typically exceeds the experience itself. There’s just enough curiosity about how these people would wind up to have driven this project from afterthought to reality, and when you have that sort of historic performance coupled with its multigenerational pull on cable and streaming since then the idea of revisiting RUNWAY magazine once more was arguably a no-brainer for the brand and IP-obsessed brainiacs at Disney that got this franchise potential along with STAR WARS and a percentage of X-MEN. Judging by the returns that those have provided to date, throwing Streep a $20 million payday to once again not cosplay Anna Wintour was reasonably low-hanging fruit.
Having all of this as bait ultimately attracted a whole bunch of other fans and bandwagoners, as PAGE SIX’s Riley Cardoza revealed:
Viewers, gird your loins! The “Devil Wears Prada 2” features a slew of surprise celebrity cameos. From a Grammy-winning singer to a pair of Bravolebrities, the “Devil Wears Prada” sequel is an A-list affair — and even includes an unexpected glimpse of George Clooney’s home in Italy.
Villa Oleandra, Clooney’s Lake Como home, appeared in the movie’s trailer as Andy and Emily Charlton, Emily Blunt’s character, took a boat ride…”Summer House” alums Paige DeSorbo and Hannah Berner have a “three-second cameo” in the movie, which the latter revealed via Instagram on April 21. The comedian posted a still of herself and DeSorbo on set, clinking glasses of champagne in formalwear. “Surprise!” Berner told her followers. “Please don’t treat us differently!!!!!”
And then this:
Streep asked Lady Gaga to play a pop star in the movie, telling “Heart Breakfast” listeners on April 29 that she cold called. “I thought, I might as well try her,” Streep remembered. “I just said, ‘Would you do this? Because it’s going to be really good.’ And she said, ‘Yeah!’” “Just like that,” the Golden Globe winner continued. “She’s on her world tour, which lasted a year, playing to 75,000 people in a stadium and just flew off and did this.”
These are the kind of fan bases that are ardent and, yep, obsessed enough to plunk down a twenty for a few minutes of getting their fill of their particular allure. Moreover, they’re the kind that will churn in to Disney Plus or Hulu when it eventually lands there. And since half the game is getting people into your tent to at least be aware of what else is out there, the long tail returns on this sequel loom to be as enduring as the first.
You’re probably even gonna get me at some point to watch this–heck, I found a way to show up the first time around. And I’m hardly the bullseye demo. So lift up an oatmilk Cappuccino with caramel and cinnamon or an Iced Chai Latte with almondmilk and sugar free caramel in celebration of a reunion that’s actually worth the trouble to get dressed up to attend. I’ve even got my own Prada accessories for the one I’m hankering to go to–just let me have my iced lavender latte with protein milk, protein foam, sugar-free vanilla syrup and cookie crumbles instead.
Until next time…