Anne Hathaway and her The Devil Wears Prada 2 co-stars were generously compensated for their roles in the hit sequel. Hathaway, 43, Meryl Streep, 78, and Emily Blunt, 43, were each paid a cool $12.5 million to reprise their beloved characters from the 2006 original film.
Sources told Variety that while Streep is the biggest name, she advocated for the other two leading ladies to earn just as much as she would, negotiating a 'favored nations' contractual agreement in which all parties are paid equally. It comes after the show business veteran recently revealed on the Today show that she was prepared to walk away from the original The Devil Wears Prada production if her salary demands weren't met for the role of Miranda Priestly.
Streep pocketed a reported $4 million for that role, which earned her a Golden Globe win and an Oscar nomination for her depiction of the icy editor-in-chief of fictional fashion magazine Runway – inspired by Vogue's Anna Wintour. Meanwhile, Hathaway reportedly earned a $1 million paycheck for the 2006 film while Blunt took home $800,000.
Bonuses and Box Office Success
Beyond their multimillion-dollar checks for the second installment, the three women will also receive bonuses – additional income as the movie surpasses pre-negotiated milestones in box office numbers. Variety reported that the ladies have the potential to earn over $20 million from the add-on. The pay for the movie's top male star, Stanley Tucci, wasn't disclosed.
The movie scored a remarkable $233 million opening weekend at the box office last week. The follow-up to the original 2006 flick sees Hathaway return as Andrea Sachs, the former Runway assistant who comes back to work alongside Priestly.
Streep on Character Complexity
Streep recently gave her honest opinion about the state of movie characters, lamenting that they lack complexity. While promoting The Devil Wears Prada 2 in a Hits Radio interview, the Academy Award winner said the superhero genre has flattened characters. Streep was interviewed alongside co-stars Anne Hathaway and Emily Blunt when she was asked about viewers seeing a softer side of her cutthroat portrayal of Miranda Priestly.
'I feel like you get a realistic view,' she reasoned. 'I think we tend to Marvel-ize the movies now. We got the villains and we got the good guys, and it's so boring.' The legendary star added: 'What's really interesting about life is that some of the heroes are flawed and some of the villains are human and interesting and have their own strengths. So that's what I like about this [movie]. It's messier.'
In anticipation of the movie's release, Streep and Wintour covered the May issue of Vogue. Wintour said she 'trusted' Streep 'implicitly' when it came to shooting the second movie. 'I do think they've located something true about the [fashion] business now,' Streep noted about returning to the film 20 years later.
DailyMail film critic Brian Viner described the sequel as 'smart and funny,' adding, 'There are plenty of satisfying one-liners indicating how the world has changed in 20 years.'
