The Devil Wears Prada 2's Box Office Shows How Far Superhero Movies Have Fallen

Seemingly nothing can slow Miranda Priestly and Andy Sachs down. "The Devil Wears Prada 2" has ruled the box office ever since it opened in theaters several weeks ago. It's already well out-grossed its predecessor and is on pace to potentially become one of the highest-grossing movies of 2026 overall, when all's said and done. In doing so, though, it has indirectly highlighted the fact that superhero movies have fallen from grace at the box office, broadly speaking.

As of this writing, director David Frankel's fashion-forward sequel has earned $546 million globally, including a whopping $370 million internationally. Mind you, the movie still has a ton of gas left in the tank and will cross the $600 million mark before long against a reported $100 million budget. It's such a big hit that "The Devil Wears Prada" may even have a future as a franchise beyond this one sequel, assuming Disney and/or the core cast wishes to pursue such a thing.

Setting aside future prospects (which are quite good), "The Devil Wears Prada 2" has already out-grossed every 2025 Marvel Studios movie, including "The Fantastic Four: First Steps" ($522 million), "Thunderbolts*" ($382 million), and "Captain America: Brave New World" ($415 million). Indeed, 2025's box office results proved the Marvel Cinematic Universe has fallen from grace. Couple that with the success of movies like "The Devil Wears Prada 2," and it seems audiences are gravitating more towards non-superhero fare.

Case in point: Virtually no "new" superhero franchises have successfully launched since the COVID-19 pandemic began. For example, Marvel had much bigger plans for the Eternals before 2021's "Eternals" ($402 million) majorly disappointed. Similarly, the sequel to 2021's "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" has yet to materialize, and "Thunderbolts*" didn't pan out. And the list goes beyond Marvel, too.

2025's highest-grossing superhero movie was DC Studios' "Superman" ($618 million), a success to be certain. But critical reception aside, it still made less than Zack Snyder's "Man of Steel" did at the box office in 2013, taking in $668 million at the time. That was largely viewed as somewhat disappointing.

To be sure, the days are gone where a movie like "Venom" could coast to well over $800 million worldwide in theaters without breaking a sweat. After all, "Joker" made more than $1 billion at the box office in 2019, whereas 2024's "Joker: Folie à Deux" was a colossal flop, taking in just $207 million globally. Meanwhile, "Shazam! Fury of the Gods," "The Flash," and "Blue Beetle," and "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom," all seriously disappointed and/or flopped badly in 2023, and even 2022's Dwayne Johnson vehicle "Black Adam" failed to start a new DC franchise.

"Black Adam" aside, however, 2022 was otherwise the last year of true unquestioned superhero movie dominance. We had "Spider-Man: No Way Home" ($1.9 billion) in late 2021, followed in 2022 by "The Batman" ($772 million) for DC and then "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" ($955 million) and "Thor: Love and Thunder" ($760 million) for Marvel Studios. But those films all involved marquee characters and/or were part of established properties.

2023, on the other hand, was the year where the cracks really started to show. That's also when "The Marvels" finished its box office run as the lowest-grossing MCU movie ever, taking in just $206 million. Sony's "Spider-Man" spin-offs "Madame Web" and "Kraven the Hunter" have since fallen well short of expectations, as did "Morbius" in 2022. Hence, Sony plans to reboot its "Spider-Man" spin-off universe altogether.

We're a far cry from 2021 when Marvel movies made up 30% of the year's total box office. The era of presumed superhero movie dominance is over. The good news is that it isn't "superheros or nothing else." Audiences have demonstrated clear interest in different types of stories.

I recently spoke with Gen Z cinephiles, and it showed me Hollywood needs a wake-up call. They don't care about the franchises of the '80s that studios keep trying to make work. They aren't as interested in superheroes. They do, however, show up for stuff like "Five Nights at Freddy's" or "A Minecraft Movie," which are aimed more squarely at them.

Women have often been under-served, yet they've turned up in droves for films like "The Devil Wears Prada 2," "Barbie," and "It Ends With Us," among others. We also can't ignore "Project Hail Mary" becoming one of the most successful Hollywood movies of 2026 with $668 million at the global box office and counting. It defies much of the franchise-obsessed logic that has dominated the business for the better part of the last 20 years.

Mind you, the resounding success of "Prada 2" shouldn't be viewed as some kind of middle-finger to superhero movies. We don't have to lower one to raise the other. And superhero films will still be very successful in certain cases. "Deadpool & Wolverine" was hugely profitable in 2024, while "Avengers: Endgame" will probably be the biggest movie of 2026.

What should the takeaway be? Hollywood would do well to stop viewing superheroes as the be all, end all. It's time to adapt and change with the times. Tastes are evolving. Studios need to evolve, too.

"The Devil Wears Prada 2" is in theaters now.