SummaryThe Devil Wears Prada franchise has crossed $1 billion USD at the global box office, with the sequel accounting for $676 million USD of that total across its first seven weeks of releaseThe Devil Wears Prada 2 opened to $233.6 million USD worldwide and $77 million USD domestically, the second-best MPA global opening of 2026, and surpassed the original film's entire domestic lifetime within nine daysThe sequel reunited director David Frankel and writer Aline Brosh McKenna with the full original cast, including Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci, on a $100 million USD production budgetThe Devil Wears Prada franchise crossed $1 billion USD at the global box office this week, with 20th Century Studios and Disney's The Devil Wears Prada 2 now sitting at $676 million USD worldwide through seven weeks of release. The milestone makes the sequel one of the defining commercial stories of 2026 and positions it as a template for how legacy IP, handled with care, can outperform franchises built on considerably larger infrastructure.The numbers at every stage of the run have been striking. The opening weekend of $233.6 million USD worldwide ranked as the second-best MPA global debut of the year, behind only Super Mario Galaxy Movie. Domestically, the $77 million USD opening was above tracking estimates and above what Disney's own internal projections anticipated. Within nine days stateside, the sequel had already surpassed the $124.7 million USD domestic lifetime of the 2006 original. Italy and the UK have led offshore, with $37.3 million USD and $45.8 million USD respectively, and the film has claimed the top non-local release spot in territories as varied as Australia, Japan, Brazil, Germany and South Korea.What the numbers reflect is an audience that had been waiting. Nielsen data captured the signal early: streaming viewership for the original film was up 428% from March to April 2026, in the weeks immediately preceding the sequel's May 1 opening. That kind of pre-release surge is not manufactured by a marketing campaign alone. It points to a fanbase that had spent 20 years rewatching the original and was actively priming itself for a return.The creative bet Disney made was to give that audience exactly what it came for. Director David Frankel, writer Aline Brosh McKenna and the full original cast — Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci — all returned. The production budget landed at $100 million USD before global P&A, a figure that reads as disciplined relative to the returns it has generated. There was no franchise reboot logic applied here, no recasting, no pivot toward a younger demographic. The film was built for the people who made the first one a $326.5 million USD global hit and trusted they would show up again.The contrast with comparable legacy sequels is useful context. Many nostalgia-driven sequels arriving two decades after their originals have struggled to replicate the cultural conditions that made the first films work, often because they attempt to update or expand the IP rather than return to it. The Devil Wears Prada 2 appears to have succeeded in part by resisting that instinct, anchoring itself in the same creative team and the same emotional register rather than chasing a broader audience it did not need. Female moviegoers led the opening weekend, with 62% of the North American audience arriving after 5 p.m. on opening day, a pattern consistent with an audience that had planned the outing rather than drifted into it.The franchise now stands at over $1 billion USD combined across both films, with the original's $326.5 million USD global total and the sequel's $676 million USD and counting. Disney has released three of the top six MPA global releases of 2026 YTD, and The Devil Wears Prada 2 sits at fourth on that list, occupying the same ranking domestically.