Multiple sources are reporting that The Devil Wears Prada 2 opened to an impressive $77 million domestic box office total. Couple that with another $156 million internationally, and the film is already at $233 million. Evidently 75% of the moviegoers were female. My guess was that another 20% were gay men. Regardless of who it was, the movie made a very impressive total by any standard, much less for one essentially led by women, and in particular one woman who is almost 77.
This was Meryl's biggest movie opening of her career. That's exciting! And as I've mentioned a handful of times before, I hope it just bolsters future projects for her, assuming they're out there and that she's interested. We'll keep our eyes peeled each week to see if the sky is the limit for Prada's box office numbers. I imagine Mother's Day coming up this weekend is a natural boost for ladies to swing by a theater together.
A couple of days ago, Netflix announced that they are pushing Greta Gerwig's upcoming Narnia film to 2027. A lot of details came out of the announcement, including that the official title is Narnia: The Magician's Nephew. The Magician's Nephew was the sixth of seven books in C.S. Lewis's Narnia series, and it serves as a prequel to the events of all the others. Meryl name was officially included in the cast list, and the project is now listed under her "credits" tag on her IMDbPro page.
They're also doing a wide theatrical release, opening on February 12, with it being made available to stream on Netflix on April 2. The book's tagline from the article:
The book is set a 1,000 years before the events of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and focuses on the lion Aslan's creation of the magical world of Narnia.
Previous reports have suggested that Meryl is in fact Aslan. A lot of people are very skeptical about Streep in any way being the character is Aslan, presumably because it's historically written as a male (and a male lion, at that). But if Gerwig is doing it "her way," and if the C.S. Lewis Estate is on board in producing, I can't imagine it's going to be something so out of left field so as to alienate fans of the books. Time will tell, as always. Knowing that the character is a lion, we don't know if we'll even see Meryl as herself in the movie, or if it'll be a voice-only performance. If that latter is the case, I'm much less interested, although I'll still see it. It would be cool if we actually get to see her act in the film.
I suspect that this is going to be another big box-office draw, and knowing that it's now opening in early 2027, it spreads things out nicely. Maybe we'll get a teaser this summer and we'll get a better sense of what Meryl's participation will look like. In the meantime, I might read the book.
It has been almost five years since I've done a review on a Meryl Streep film. I'd forgotten that 2021's Don't Look Up had a limited theatrical release before it being streamed on Netflix. I had gone to the movie and drove home through a snowstorm. Oh the lengths I go. Last night was definitely less eventful weather-wise. And so, as I like to do for Meryl premieres, I joined my friend Scooter and his partner Joe for a screening of the much anticipated sequel to 2006's blockbuster movie, The Devil Wears Prada.
I get annoyed when people use the word "iconic" to describe every single thing that is remotely good or has been around for more than five years. But using the term for the original Prada is actually appropriate. The lines and looks from the movie have so cemented themselves into the cultural zeitgeist, that to this day, most movie-goers will know what you mean if you snootily whisper "that's all" or label anything blue as "cerulean." The film unexpectedly made a lot of money, earned Meryl and Oscar nomination, and opened a series of doors for her in her late fifties that led to one of the best decades of screen performances any actor has ever delivered.
With that comes enormous expectations for the quality of a sequel. Rumblings began shortly after the first movie about trying to recapture the magic. Streep and her co-stars have said in interviews during their global press tour recently that the timing and/or script had never felt right. Until now.
Twenty years after the original, The Devil Wears Prada 2 finds Miranda Priestly (Streep) still at the top of Runway magazine. But in an age where print media is drawing its last breath, the company's ad-drawing power isn't on the unshakable ground it used to be. Couple that with bad press related to running a piece that failed to vet a brand that uses sweatshop labor, and Miranda's grip on the company, and a big promotion she's seeking, hang in the balance.
I'm going to pause for a second to say that I'm not going to go into a lot of detail about the plot. For one thing, I find it tedious, and secondly, anyone reading this is likely not going to need a big recap. But suffice it to say that Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway), recently fired from her job as a journalist, is hired at Runway as the features editor to improve the magazine's image with a series of well-written articles. Still desperate for ad dollars, Miranda and her right-hand man, Nigel (Stanley Tucci), seek advertising dollars from Emily Charlton (Emily Blunt) a former assistant at Runway who is now an executive at luxury brand, Dior.
Things improve for the magazine when Andy lands a "holy grail" interview with the super rich ex of a tech billionaire, only for Miranda to miss out on her seemingly in-the-bag promotion when her boss, Irv, dies at his own birthday party. Irv's son is a stereotypical bro who plans to gut the budget of Runway, so Andy and Emily concoct a plan for Emily's boyfriend (played by a hilarious Justin Theroux) to buy Runway and keep Miranda at the helm. Only problem is that Emily planned to fire Miranda after her boyfriend buys the magazine so that she can run it herself. Then Miranda and Andy hatch a plan which ends up in the aforementioned high-profile interviewee beating Emily and her boyfriend to the punch in not only buying Runway, but the entire publishing conglomerate that owns Runway, Elias-Clarke. Oh, and this "ex" who bought the company just happened to be the former wife of Emily's insufferable boyfriend. Miranda gets her big promotion, Andy stays on at Runway, she and Emily sort of become friends, and we learn that it was Nigel who got Andy the job as features editor at Runway in the first place.
Whew. My first reaction was just that I was happy to be seeing Meryl in a movie again, especially one that revisits such a special character. That has a downside too, however, as I, like I imagine many of us, have an idea in our minds of what Miranda and the rest of the cast should be like or stay like. Miranda 2.0 seemed a little lighter, a little hammier, a little more beat down than in the original. I have to remind myself that it would be dull if Meryl played her the exact same way she did twenty years ago. People live lives, they have experiences, they get older, they gain (some?) perspective. It was probably a tricky undertaking for the production for how to provide fans enough throwbacks to the original while still making it fresh. The good news is that in focusing the story essentially around the plight of journalists and journalism, the film felt fresh and like it had something worthwhile to say beyond bitchy one-liners and monologues about how fashion is more important than we might think.
The main cast was fantastic. They all felt honest to their original characters while still showcasing some level of change. All the celebrity cameos were small enough that it didn't become distracting or feel too gimmicky. The scenes were beautifully shot, particularly the sequences in Milan. I commented after the movie that the sequel was more fast-paced and included what felt like a lot more scenes than the original. This seemed to fit with the way we take in media these days, where many of us can barely focus more than a few seconds on anything before scrolling to the next page or simply tuning out.
My biggest takeaway from this film has pretty much already been shared in previous posts. I didn't want it to be a panned disaster. I'm not one who longs for sequels or repeats when it comes to Meryl's acting career. He recent work in Only Murders in the Building, and the upcoming possibilities of a third go-around for Mamma Mia! and Big Little Lies don't excite me. The very genesis of my enormous admiration and interest in Meryl and her work lies in the litany of varied characters she regularly and consistently portrays for us all. Not that she can't and doesn't do an exceptional job in advancing or developing characters she in any way repeats. And I'm of course thrilled that the box office total and favorable reviews for Prada 2 can only aid in getting things she'd be interested in involving herself in green-lit. But my thrill after a night out to see Meryl in a new movie is ever so slightly dulled by the fact that for the most part, I went in having a very good idea of exactly what I would be getting.
Deadline is reporting that The Devil Wears Prada 2 is on track to earn upwards of $180 million worldwide in its opening weekend. Domestic predictions put it at $73-80 million. That's a lot of money, and while it's a sequel, it's rather staggering for a leading lady who will turn 77 in two months.
I hate to harp on the age thing, but it really is remarkable. Not unlike the somewhat unexpected success of the original movie back in 2006, we just don't see female-driven films as consistently at the top of the box office, much less those led by women over 55. Also like the last film, I hope that the financial and possibly critical success of the sequel (the review embargo is lifted later today) will, as director Michael Hoffman (The Last Station) was quoted as saying, will render Meryl "besieged with offers."
The scripts for which she could realistically star are likely fewer than twenty years ago, but maybe not. Perhaps some of them are just sitting in a drawer somewhere waiting to be green-lit when the right star decides to lend her box-office clout to the project. It's exciting to look forward to that possibility. Because like you all know, I most enjoy when we get to see Meryl in new and complex roles.
Americans can already see the movie tomorrow (April 30). Due to my own personal schedule, I'll be attending "opening night" on Friday. Expect my review to be posted by the next morning.
Meryl was in attendance for the world premiere of The Devil Wears Prada 2 at Lincoln Center in New York City tonight.
She was of course joined by other members of the cast, in particular the three other mains of Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci.
The whole crew looks great, although Blunt's dress is a little out there for me. I was actually able to watch a bit of the red carpet on Disney+. It was nice to be able to start it late and fast forward through a bunch of fluff. Red carpet interviews are always so tedious.
I think there is a review embargo for the movie in place until maybe next Wednesday. But maybe we'll gets some "reactions" on Twitter, for example, even if they're not full-on reviews. It'll be nice just to get some minor feedback on how the sequel holds up.
The press tour has been far more extensive than I thought it would be, as far as Meryl's participation is concerned. They started in Mexico City, went to Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, now New York, will be headed to London next and then L.A. Meryl said in an interview today that she'll be in a body bag by the time it's all done. They're really pushing this hard, and I hope it pays off at the box office. Of course I already have plans to see it opening night on May 1. Can't wait!
I maintain that Meryl would not have been particularly interested in revisiting this character and world had the script not at least been decent. We'll never going to fully know until we see it, which is only in three and a half weeks! I really hope this isn't a huge disappointment. I'm counting on the movie being a boost to Meryl's upcoming project opportunities. I think as long as it's not complete shit there is enough good will carrying over from how popular the first film was for people to get their butts into the theater at least one or two times. Can't wait!
I am actually kind of shocked to see this news today. Of all the projects in the pipeline for Meryl (The Corrections, Useful Idiots, the Joni Mitchell biopic, Mamma Mia! 3), I would've guessed that The Corrections was the most likely to have fallen by the wayside. We have heard zero about it since it was first announced with Meryl being attached way back in September of 2024. Until today.
Netflix has announced that they have picked up the series, with Cord Jefferson (director and writer of American Fiction, which won him an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay) attached to direct all episodes. As previously announced, author Jonathan Franzen is penning the script based on his 2001 best-selling novel. Streep is listed as one of the executive producers, which is unusual for her. With the announcement of a streamer being attached, as well as a director, this is about as close as it gets to being a sure thing until we actually see pics of her on set.
It's interesting that Netflix is making a concerted push to produce "prestige projects." Their new VP, Nora Skinner (who came over from HBO in 2024), has apparently been deliberately focusing on this type of project acquisition for the streamer. The next thing to watch for is casting updates!
If I were to guess, I would think filming for this would be late fall or early 2027, as much of the story takes place around the Christmas holidays.
Story tagline from Deadline:
Based on Franzen’s National Book Award-winning novel, The Corrections is a sharply comic portrait of a Midwestern family whose three unmoored adult siblings desperately resist their mother’s wish for one last Christmas together – each undone by the delusional ambitions that were supposed to save them from becoming their parents.
