'The Devil Wears Prada 2' kicks off summer movie season in style with $77 million opening

Disney has proven that you don’t need superheroes, explosive action-packed sequences or blue-skinned aliens for a sequel to perform well at the box office.

Over the weekend, the studio released “The Devil Wears Prada 2” under its 20th Century Fox banner to raucous results. The sequel film to 2006’s “The Devil Wears Prada” tallied around $77 million domestically during its opening weekend, the third-highest debut of the year. That’s nearly triple the $27.5 million that the first film generated during its opening weekend two decades ago, according to data from Comscore.

Internationally, “The Devil Wears Prada 2” secured more than $150 million, bringing its total haul to around $233 million globally for its first three days in theaters. That total is 72% of what the original “The Devil Wears Prada” generated during its entire theatrical run.

“Some things never go out of fashion,” Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Comscore told CNBC. “It’s difficult to predictwhether audiences will embrace or reject a sequel to a beloved original, but the creative teams, the marketing folks and the distribution team of Disney’s 20th Century Studios put together an irresistible hit movie that had not just appeal in the United States but also around the world.”

Disney’s return to the well for a “The Devil Wears Prada” sequel comes at a time where Hollywood has become more reliant on tried-and-true intellectual property. In fact, the 2026 calendar is filled with titles connected to major franchises like Star Wars,Marvel, DC Comics, Toy Story,Super Mario Bros., Hunger Games, Scream, Scary Movie, Minions, Dune and Jumanji.

There’s even a sequel to 1998’s “Practical Magic” coming in the fall.

While “The Devil Wears Prada 2” isn’t the typical blockbuster movie sequel that usually kicks off the summer movie season, it showcases the fervor of audiences for nostalgic IP.

“Usually the movies that kick off this kind of weekend are what I like to refer to as ‘cape’ movies,” Wendy Finerman, an Academy Award-winner and producer of “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” said on CNBC’s “Fast Money” Monday.

The characters in this film wear a different kind of cape, she noted, adding it’s a story “where you take off the cape and you’re more powerful.”

The film drove significant attendance from female moviegoers, who represented 76% of tickets sold. It also brought out an older cohort of moviegoers. While the majority of tickets, about 28%, were sold to those aged 25 to 34 years old, the second-highest demographic was moviegoers aged over 55, which accounted for 22% of tickets sold.

“There was a group of people from Boston, friends of mine, 30 women went together,” Finerman said. “…Families are going, sisters are going. And the other thing is, and it’s not just here, all over the world, people are dressing up. It’s become an event. They’re wearing red shoes, they’re wearing makeup, they’re looking like different characters, they’re saying certain lines.”

“So it’s become an event versus just going to the movies,” she said.