The Devil Wears Prada 2 box office: Fashion sequel shatters international ticket sales

That’s all? That’s not even the half of it.

The Devil Wears Prada sequel stormed the runway and the box office, collecting $US234 million around the world in its opening weekend.

In Australia, it was the highest opening movie so far this year, selling $11.03 million worth of tickets.

In North America, comprising the US and Canada, The Devil Wears Prada 2 earned $US77 million, which fell within the range of the most recent prediction tracking of a $US70 million to $US80 million open.

But it performed much better than expected in international markets, where it was predicted to hit $US100 million but actually brought in $US157 million.

The film’s quartet of stars, Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci, have been a global marketing blitz for the past month, promoting the movie in Mexico City, Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, London and New York City.

The strategy clearly paid off and reflects the beloved status of the 2006 original around the world.

The sequel arrives 20 years after the first film, which grossed $US326 million over its lifetime, not adjusted for inflation.

However, the sequel commanded a much larger budget with a reported $US100 million in production costs versus up to $US40 million for the 2006 film.

According to exit polling data of American audiences, The Devil Wears Prada 2’s audience skewed heavily towards women, with 76 per cent of viewers, while 60 per cent of ticket buyers was over 35 years old. That points to a strong nostalgia factor.

It’s a sensational result for a broad studio comedy, a genre that has increasingly been punted to streaming platforms, and further debunks the furphy that cinema releases with older actors (Blunt and Hathaway are both 43, Streep is 76 and Tucci is 65) and predominantly women leads don’t sell.

The movie reunites the four characters two decades later, back at Runway, the fictional glossy fashion magazine that is largely accepted as a stand-in for Vogue.

The media industry is in decline and budgets at Runway are contracting, even if its venerable editor-in-chief, Miranda Priestly (Streep) and her right-hander Nigel (Tucci), are still running the book.

Into this quagmire and recently retrenched from her serious newspaper job returns Andy (Hathaway), Miranda’s former assistant.

The trio need to sure up the support of Runway’s advertisers, which now includes Emily (Blunt), who runs marketing for Dior’s retail arm.

The frothy picture ticks a lot of boxes that fans expect, including high fashion, exciting locations (in this case, Milan and Lake Como), and scathing one-liners.

The film is expected to have a presence at tomorrow’s Met Gala event, the real-life Vogue magazine’s glitziest annual event.

Vogue’s grande dame, Anna Wintour, had originally disassociated with Miranda Priestly even though the character was based on her – the film was adapted from a 2003 novel written by Lauren Weisberger, who once worked for Wintour – but has now embraced the connections.

Wintour and Streep posed together on the cover of Vogue earlier this year, with Streep in character as Miranda.