THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2 catwalks to a $233M global debut

Plus: GILDA, LONGLEGS 2 & BLAIR WITCH REBOOTED!

🎟️ Box Office: PRADA 2 makes a stylish debut.

In the US, there was a massive debut for The Devil Wears Prada 2, a sequel 20 years in the waiting that reunited all of the original cast. It obliterated the original’s $27.5M opening weekend, with a $77M debut, knocking Michael down to No.2 with $54M. It also made $233M worldwide, so launched the summer blockbuster season in fine style considering insiders were worried nobody really cared about this belated follow-up.

The horror Hokum with Adam Scott (Severance) opened with a low $6.4M, which seems to be the case with a lot of horrors just lately. For such a reliable genre, is this a sign audiences are getting a bit fatigued by the near-constant stream of low-budget horrors that all feel a bit same-y?

🇺🇸 US Box Office

1. The Devil Wears Prada 2—$77M (NEW)

2. Michael—$54M (week 2)

3. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie—$12.1M (week 5)

4. Project Hail Mary—$8.6M (week 7)

5. Hokum—$6.4M (NEW)

In the UK, The Devil Wears Prada 2 likewise drummed up a lot of business, grossing $9.3M over its opening weekend and going straight to No.1. It seems there really were a lot of fans aching to see more from those characters! Hokum scared up $626K for No.4, while Indian spy thriller Patriots managed to hit No.6 with $294K.

🇬🇧 UK Box Office

1. The Devil Wears Prada 2—£9.3M (NEW)

2. Michael—£7M (week 2)

3. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie—£961K (week 5)

4. Hokum—£626K (NEW)

5. Project Hail Mary—£580K (week 7)

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👀 What’s Jack Heslop Been Watching?

“E.T—The Extra-Terrestrial. A classic. The story is perfectly told, almost always from a child’s POV. Another film would probably have added dry expository scenes explaining the alien and its origins and a hundred other things. The stroke of genius here is in how the information given to the audience is only ever that which the child characters have. No more, no less. This adds authenticity and a strong layer of mystery to the film. It’s heartwarming, mystical, a little bit scary, and funny.”

👀 And What About Marios Papadoniou?

“The Lighthouse. Individuation at sea, or contemporary Greek myth. You decide! Eggers provides the tools to interpretation through specific subjects whose presences are tied to different facets of Jung’s map of the human psyche—he confirms his influence for the film during interviews at that time. No film concerning the traversal of one’s own psyche will ever come close to Robert Eggers’ magnum opus. The Lighthouse is the epitome of psychological cinema. The only films that come close to its adeptness, both in the filmic medium and psychological wealth, are Persona, Naked Lunch, and Lost Highway—that’s it. Sit down, lock in unplugged (no second screening), and enjoy this psychologically drenched assault of the senses whose images will help you unlock this wondrous monochrome experience.”

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‘Longlegs’—Credit: NEON

Film News: LONGLEGS 2 & BLAIR WITCH REBOOT

Writer-director Oz Perkins is re-teaming with Nicolas Cage for another film set in the Longlegs universe, which may be a prequel about the character he played. Please call this Longerlegs. Personally, I’d rather Perkins do something new but involve Maika Monroe’s FBI agent character in a new freakish tale.

The Blair Witch Project reboot now has the original’s actors and directors onboard as executive producers, which is set to be directed by Dylan Clark. This follows years of frustration for the actors, in particular, as Blair Witch was a non-union movie, made for just $35K. After it became a phenomenon, they were later paid $300K to split between them, which was a slap in the face considering the film grossed $248M worldwide and spawned a franchise. This news looks to be a way to reward the OG’s for their involvement, decades later, and it’s doubtful they will have any serious sway with the creative direction of the new film.

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👀 And What Has Barney Page Been Watching?

“Don't be overly put off by early parts of 2026’s The Gates (already on Prime Video)—while subtlety is not the strong suit of John Burr's thriller about young Black men trapped in a very white gated community, it does end up taking some unexpected turns.”

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🔎 Critical Lens: GILDA on Criterion 4K

Alexander Boucher cast his eye over Criterion’s new 4K Ultra HD release of 1946 classic Gilda, starring Rita Hayworth.

What ultimately thrills about Gilda is its moral ambiguity and its hedonism, because it exists beyond money, guns, and police. It’s something more recognisably human: a film about broken people making bad decisions in the pursuit of feeling anything at all.

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👀 What Else Has Barney Page Been Watching?

“Like many true survival stories, 2025’s Not Without Hope, on Prime Video, runs the risk of being over-reverent toward its subjects (four men stranded at sea when their fishing boat capsizes), but it tells the tale serviceably, and director Joe Carnahan ekes out the maximum from a super-minimalist setting (ocean, upturned hull). Pity about the almost meaningless title.” Also, The Cage on BBC iPlayer, a five-part series, is a smart, semi-realistic, Liverpool-set crime thriller (much more about the criminals than the cops) given an unusually layered human dimension by superlative writing and performances. Sheridan Smith and Michael Socha lead.”

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