“Michael” and “The Devil Wears Prada 2” are very big at the box office.
It doesn’t matter that they’re not great movies, and that they each have poor-to-middling reviews.
They are ‘fan service,’ movies made as comfort food. They make the audience feel good.
It’s good news for theaters, which haven’t seen this kind of action since the summer of “Barbenheimer.”
When I set foot in a suburban AMC theater on Friday night at 8:30pm it was booming. It was all young people, and they were as diverse as possible. They were seeing both movies, in no particular order.
“Michael” is now at $183 million US after 2 weeks. “Prada” made $77 million this weekend. Each film is even bigger overseas, where look and feel take precedence over plot and details.
Tomorrow, with the exception of Meryl Streep, players from “Prada” will glide along the Met Gala red carpet. “Michael” star Jafaar Jackson will do the same, maybe with some of his cohorts. Protests be damned. There are popcorn buckets to be sold! (Although, none in my cineplex.)
Does it matter that “Michael” is inaccurate? Nope. Or that “Prada” is dull and full of phantom threads? For example, what does it matter than Andie (Anne Hathaway) stained that dress after being told not to? Some plot point was dropped in the editing.
PS Lady Gaga has three songs in the iTunes top 25, all from “Prada.”
