Anne Hathaway in The Devil Wears Prada 2 and Jaafar Jackson in Michael (Credits: Lionsgate and 20th Century/Disney)
This is part two in a series of reviews on films I watche after I visited Hollywood and saw the city in decay. Then I saw the box office roar again in a way that I hadn’t seen since before the COVID-19 pandemic. Again, the box office continues to do great with two other films that will be some of this year’s biggest films: Michael and The Devil Wears Prada 2. Michael started with an opening weekend of $97 million and a second weekend of $54 million. The Devil Wear Prada 2 opened with $77 million in its first weekend. And the two other films I previously talked about, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and Project Hail Mary, hung on to number three and number four positions.
Both of these pictures here are different than the two previous movies I discussed. One is a musician biopic, a theme that has been done several times throughout the decades, with Bohemian Rhapsody as the highest-grossing film. The other one is a twenty-year-old sequel to a film made in 2006 that is a female-led film appealing to a female audience. Both got an A- Cinemascore from audiences. Once again, you can count me as a satisfied audience member among the majority. And yet out of the four movies, you can only count The Super Mario Galaxy Movie the only one that is a risk-averse safe bet.
First, let’s look at Michael. There is no question that Michael Jackson is one of the most popular entertainers in the world. Just as Elvis Presley was named “the King of Rock,” Michael was considered “the King of Pop.” However, unlike any musician biopic, there was something Michael had to contend with that no other musician biopic did: the child molestation sex allegations. While Michael went to trial and was acquitted, there was still a portion of people who believed he was guilty after his death. A documentary, Leaving Neverland, was made after Michael’s death and made the accusation that Michael was absolutely guilty.
The Jackson family estate weren’t sure if a public audience would watch a Michael Jackson biopic. However, a Broadway play called MJ started in 2021 and continues to play on Broadway while racking up some Emmys. In 2022, Lionsgate announced a biopic would be made. The film would star Michael’s nephew Jaafar as Michael. Originally, the third act would make references to Michael’s initial child molestation allegation. However, a clause was discovered in a legal settlement that insisted no mention of Jordan Chandler, one of Michael’s accusers. As a result, a third act had to be rewritten and ends with Michael on top in 1988.
The movie starts with Michael as a boy with the Jackson 5, pushed hard by their father, Joe Jackson (Colman Domingo), to get to the top, as he sees the group as his meal ticket out of blue-collar life. Joe is not only demanding but physically abusive, as at one point, he belts a young Michael after he disobeys him. Nevertheless, the Jackson 5 get the attention of Motown. Berry Gordy (Larenz Tate), the head of Motown, specifically notes that Michael is talented and mentions that he sings a Smokey Robinson song better than Smokey did.
But as the group grew up, Michael went to go his own way solo. His first solo record, Off the Wall, is a huge success, produced by Quincy Jones (Kendrick Sampson). Yet Joe, wanting to keep the Jackson family alive and hold on to their success, insists that the brothers tour with Michael on the success of his first solo album. Michael doesn’t want to, but being scared of his father, goes along with it. The dramatic arc in this movie will be Michael learning to stand up to his father and claim independence.
There are things about Michael we learned that would play later in his life. For one, he wants plastic surgery on his nose, even though the plastic surgeon can’t understand why he would want this. He has a chimpanzee, a snake, and a giraffe as pets. He never grows up beyond a child’s emotional maturity. Likewise, he’s not comfortable with his peers and relates more to children, as he visits children’s hospitals to talk to children who are terminally ill. Then there is the Pepsi commercial where Michael’s hair gets caught on fire, which would begin his drug addiction, as he’s given painkillers to treat it.
At the same time, we also see Michael’s talent and why he came to the public attention. As a kid, you can see he’s already talented in the Jackson 5 and can captivate an audience. As an adult, he incorporates dancing as he sings and takes advantage of MTV as it’s starting out. (The music videos of Michael Jackson that played on MTV show Michael as his best.) As the songs play out and Jaafar greatly mimics his uncle’s moves, as well as his singing (though Jaafar’s voice is blended with Michael’s), we are reminded of what a gifted performer Michael was.
In one of the widest disconnects between audience and critics, Michael did not get good reviews and received a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 39 percent. Critics didn’t care for Michael because they felt it is a basic, by-the-numbers, sanitized biography of Michael. (Bohemian Rhapsody also got some of the same criticism as well.) On the other hand, audiences seem to like the approach the filmmakers have taken, starting with the beginning of Michael reaching up to the top of his success before his downfall later in life.
One of my friends in the film industry once wrote a biopic. He told me that you can’t stick to all the facts, you have to shape it in a way that would entertain an audience. Here, in the case of Michael, it isn’t the dramatic liberties that are taken; it’s what is absent from the film. On the other hand, to my friend’s point, when it came to entertaining an audience, I don’t feel the filmmakers could have done a better job.
When I left the theater with some of the moviegoers, I mentioned seeing that Michael got $97 million during its opening weekend. One of the moviegoers who liked Michael said she wasn’t surprised. On the other hand, we both talked about whether audiences would want to watch the second half, which would include the sex allegations, the constant plastic surgery, the drug addiction, and the increasingly bizarre behavior from Michael. We agreed that it would be a depressing movie to watch and most audiences wouldn’t be interested. Thus, sticking to the first half of Michael’s life has led to audiences’ satisfaction. And it also shows, Michael has won the court of public opinion about the sex allegations. Put it this way: It’s hard to imagine anyone would make a movie about OJ Simpson and end when his football career ended. Likewise, I could not see it having a $97 million opening weekend.
Now comes The Devil Wears Prada 2. When the original came out twenty years ago, Meryl Streep was already known, Anne Hathaway was a rising star, and no one knew who Emily Blunt was, who most recently got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. As time went on, Streep remained a legend, Blunt became more famous than Hathaway, who’d started to fade away from the scene. Also, the setting was a fashion magazine, where Andy Sachs (Hathaway), an inspiring journalist, was an assistant who must endure torments from her boss, editor Miranda Priestley (Streep) for Runway Magazine. She also has a rivalry with Miranda’s other assistant, Emily Charlton (Blunt).
Twenty years later, the world changes significantly. Andy follows her dream of being a journalist, but the day she gets an award, her entire newsroom is laid off from text. Likewise, Runway gets some bad publicity. The CEO, hearing about Andy, immediately hires her as the writer and editor of Runaway, primarily to write a piece that offsets the bad publicity. Miranda isn’t happy about Andy being hired, but accepts it. At the same, Runway is now digital in this day and age. Andy quickly recognizes, aside from her salvage piece for the magazine, her job isn’t to write the meaningful stories she wants, but what will generate more clicks and advertising money for Runway. (Likewise, Emily is now employed with Dior, one of Runway’s advertisers, and demands Andy write a puff piece about Dior for continuing advertising money. She is also dating a Silicon Valley billionaire.)
Eventually, Andy learns to adapt to Runway’s style and watch Miranda slowly begin to warm up to her. Miranda is planning on getting a promotion of head of global content, but the CEO dies before he can make the announcement. The CEO’s son takes over, and his first decision is to make budget cuts, which may mean Andy loses her job as a journalist. Likewise, Miranda realizes she is no longer living her previous luxuries when Runaway books economy seats for her to a fashion gala.
As Andy goes to the gala, she realizes ownership must change if Runway is to remain the way it is, and if she and Miranda are to remain in their jobs. She then reaches out to wealthy buyers.
A key theme in The Devil Wears Prada 2 is where corporate America is today, where powerful people find that their institutions can instantly change and their positions become less significant or nonexistent when new ownership changes. Also, while Andy wants significant journalism and Miranda wants to continue championing fashion, they have to fight hard to sustain it in a system that’s becoming more AI-focused and going wherever the future takes them. (Interestingly, there is an AI meme of Miranda in the movie, yet the director insisted a human artist do this rather than AI, which adds to the film’s anti-AI theme.) While Andy and Miranda succeed in the end, we can’t be sure that they’ll survive in the long run.
The other key in The Devil Wears Prada 2 is that it’s a female-led film with richly fleshed-out female characters. First off, all three actresses play their characters as well as they did in the previous one. While the film isn’t attempting to replicate the original film’s story, the presence of Streep, Hathaway, and Blunt do bring the nostalgia of the original film back.
Also, as I read in an article from a right-leaning website that many people didn’t realize the success of Barbie was not because it’s a famous toy but because it was a female-centered movie that females wanted to see. It had glamour, beauty, fashion, and makeup but social commentary on being a woman, which is also in The Devil Wears Prada 2. This makes sense, as The Devil Wears Prada 2 opened to big numbers as well.
I have another theory on why these four movies have done well and continue to do well. Although it isn’t over, 2026 hasn’t been a great year for many people. These movies are not depressing, they provide a feel-good vibe, and all of them offer an escape from the real world.
I don’t know what this means for the future of the film industry. However, changes are happening. For one, Netflix is changing its model. It’s letting one of its films open in the theater before it goes to the streaming service. Also, the latest Star Wars-related film is projected to open at a record-low opening weekend for the franchise. Likewise, Avengers: Doomsday has lost IMAX rights, with Dune: Part 3 taking the IMAX screen. How these changes impact the film industry, your guess is as good as mine.
