Released in early May, “The Devil Wears Prada 2” proved to be a blockbuster at the box office, generating more than $690 million.
That winning streak continued when the hugely anticipated sequel made its streaming debut on Disney+.
Move Over, Deadpool
Variety has reported that “The Devil Wears Prada 2” set a new record for Disney+, generating a staggering 15.2 million views in its first five days on the streaming service.
This marks the most-watched debut for a live-action movie in Disney+ history.
The previous record-holder in the five-day-viewership window was the 2024 Marvel movie “Deadpool & Wolverine.”
As Variety pointed out, the fact that the film was seen by so many during its theatrical release makes its strong streaming performance all the more remarkable, “indicating that its audience continues to expand widely more than two months after its initial release and/or that it holds strong rewatch appeal.”
Getting the Band Back Together
Hitting theatres 20 years after the 2006 original, “The Devil Wears Prada 2” reunited the original cast, led by Hollywood icon Meryl Streep reprising her role as acid-tongued Runway editor-in-chief Miranda Priestley.
Her former assistant Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway) is now a seasoned journalist, who returns to Runway as the magazine’s new features editor.
Miranda’s other former assistant Emily Charlton (Emily Blunt) is now a high-powered executive at Dior — who, as it happens, controls the advertising money that Runway is in desperate need of.
In addition, Stanley Tucci reprised his now-iconic role as Runway art and fashion director Nigel Kipling.
Trouble for Tucci
Getty (Arturo Holmes)While “The Devil Wears Prada” was a box-office smash that’s become woven into the fabric of pop culture, the film’s massive success proved to be an unexpected stumbling block for Tucci.
As the actor told Vanity Fair, he struggled to find work after the “The Devil Wears Prada” was released in 2006.
“After ‘The Devil Wears Prada, ‘I couldn’t get a job, and I didn’t quite understand that, but that’s just the way it was,” Tucci told the magazine. “So I went and did stuff that I didn’t necessarily want to do, but I did it.”
Looking back at that period, Tucci reflected on the ups and downs of an actor’s career, observing that his has “always gone through these fluctuations, and sometimes it’s just the business. Sometimes it was personal reasons why you can’t work.”
That was certainly the case when doctors found found a large mass at the base of his tongue in 2017. Diagnosed as cancer, the mass was too large for surgery, so he instead underwent intensive high-dose radiation and chemotherapy.
The treatment worked, and Tucci is now cancer-free. However, that period proved perilous for his career.
“Having been sick six years ago, that threw a wrench into the works for a while, and then you slowly get back,” Tucci explained. “But I had to start doing things. I needed to work because I needed money. I probably started working too soon. I didn’t really have the energy to do it after the treatments, but you had to do it, and eventually you climb back up again.”
