The Devil Wears Prada 2 has strutted past Mortal Kombat II to secure the No.1 spot at the domestic box office this weekend.
The sequel, starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway as Runway magazine journalists, won Saturday with $14.9 million in domestic box office sales, putting it on track to make $41 million by the end of Sunday, sources told Deadline.
It beat out the King of Pop biopic Michael and Mortal Kombat II, the sequel to the 2021 fantasy action film, which made an estimated $12.7 million on its opening day Saturday.
According to Deadline’s projections, this would put Mortal Kombat II‘s opening weekend at $38.7 million and Michael‘s third weekend at $36.5 million.
Box office analysts had predicted that Mother’s Day weekend could be a tense fight for the No.1 top spot, with Mortal Kombat II having the advantage of being a fresh release.
The Devil Wears Prada 2, however, is in the lead, with the timing of Mother’s Day working in the film’s favor. The film’s two weeks in the box office are approaching an impressive domestic figure of $141 million overall.
The film opened to $77 million at the North American box office last weekend, making $156.6 million internationally. In the U.S. and Canada, the sequel bumped Michael to second place, and musical biopic earned $54 million on its second weekend, falling only 44 per cent.
The first The Devil Wears Prada opened in June 2006 and earned more than $326 million worldwide.
Other box office contenders this weekend included Amazon MGM Studios/Working Title’s Sheep Detectives, a British animated movie about a flock that tries to solve their shepherd’s murder, which made $5.2 million Saturday for what’s shaping up to be a $14.8 million opening weekend in the U.S.
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Meanwhile, Paramount’s 3D concert movie of Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard & Soft tour made $1.6 million Saturday with an opening weekend that’s valued around $7.4 million.
The Devil Wears Prada 2 has received mixed reviews across the board, with some critics praising its portrayal of the state of modern media, while detractors have knocked the cold cinematography style and meandering subplots.
The sequel, which features original cast members Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci, follows Streep’s ruthless fashion editor Miranda Priestley as she clashes with her former assistant-turned-rival executive Emily Charlton (Blunt) over limited advertising dollars in the declining world of print journalism.
Hathaway reprises her role as Andy Sachs, Miranda’s former assistant, who is working for the prestigious paper New York Vanguard, while Tucci returns as Miranda’s right-hand man, Nigel Kipling.
In a four-star review of the film, The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey praised the comeback of the original cast, writing that all “Streep needs to do is play thoughtfully with a beaded necklace and, instantly, it’s like Miranda never left us.”
Meanwhile, The Independent’s Adam White argued that the film’s most egregious plot hole is Anne Hathaway’s on-screen boyfriend, an Australian real estate contractor called Peter.
“Peter, doesn’t enhance or evolve Andy as a character, and the new film doesn’t seem interested in giving their relationship much of anything for us to latch onto,” writes White.
