Devil Wears Prada 2: Stars’ Salaries vs. One Extra’s $28.50

The Devil Wears Prada 2 is a story of two very different paydays. Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, and Emily Blunt each walked away with $12.5 million — and that’s before bonuses. Meanwhile, a Los Angeles content creator named Matthew Ables spent 15 hours on set, appeared in three seconds of the film, and netted $28.50 after buying the suit he was required to wear.

Both stories went viral this week, and together they paint a pretty vivid picture of Hollywood’s food chain.

$12.5 Million Each — and Meryl Made Sure Everyone Got the Same

According to Variety, which spoke to multiple sources close to the production, Streep was the linchpin. 20th Century Studios came to the table knowing she was the one who had to say yes — and she did, for $12.5 million. But here’s the part that’s genuinely surprising: Streep could have commanded significantly more to reprise Miranda Priestly’s silver bob, and instead she brokered what’s known in the industry as a “favored nations” deal, ensuring Hathaway and Blunt received exactly the same salary.

It’s a rare and notably classy move — one that honors the ensemble energy that made the original 2006 film such an enduring classic. On screen, Miranda treats her underlings like furniture. Off screen, Streep apparently had her costars’ backs.

The base salaries are just the start. All three women negotiated box office bonuses tied to pre-agreed grossing milestones, and those bonuses have already begun paying out. With the film crossing $253 million globally in its first six days, sources told Variety each star could ultimately earn over $20 million if audiences keep showing up — which, based on projections of up to $42 million in its second weekend, seems likely.

To put that in perspective: the combined $37.5 million in star salaries alone exceeded the entire $35 million budget of the original Devil Wears Prada. The sequel carried a $100 million budget, which director David Frankel has previously acknowledged was spent largely on cast. Interestingly, Variety notes this still isn’t the largest payday of Streep’s career — that honor goes to her work on Netflix’s 2021 film Don’t Look Up, where the streaming giant’s back-end buyout structure resulted in an even bigger check.

Representatives for 20th Century Studios, CAA (which represents all three actresses), Streep, and Blunt declined to comment. Reps for Hathaway did not return requests.

The Extra Who Made $28.50 — and Ate Butter Chicken Next to Dinosaur Fossils

Now for the other end of the spectrum.

Matthew Ables was just walking through Midtown Manhattan last July when he spotted something unmistakable: Meryl Streep, in full Miranda Priestly mode, filming outside 1221 Sixth Avenue — the building used as the offices of the fictional Runway magazine. A crowd had gathered, sensing something was happening. Then, as Ables described it, “we see the wig. And then she turns around and starts waving to everyone.”

Rather than just watch, Ables spotted a posted notice with the name of the production company and tracked down the background casting department. Two weeks later, he had an email asking him to report to set for two roles: a Met Gala paparazzo and — this is genuinely great — an “Angry Upscale Central Park Pedestrian in a Rush.”

The casting call required multiple wardrobe options for each role, including a suit for the gala scene. Ables hit Macy’s, H&M, and Urban Outfitters in a frenzy, then reported to the holding area at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on West 83rd Street, alongside hundreds of other extras. He changed into his new black Alfani suit, and then a wardrobe team member called out asking if anyone was wearing a designer suit. Ables, who by his own admission knows little about fashion, thought Alfani was Armani. He said yes. It did not go well.

“She thought I was trying to lie to her and get better placement in the scene so she got angry and was like, ‘We don’t have time to mess around on this set,’” Ables recalled to the New York Post. Fortunately, the suit passed muster for both scenes, so he was able to return everything else he’d bought.

The Central Park pedestrian scene took about an hour — real passersby kept wandering into the shot. Then came the Met Gala scene, filmed on the steps of the American Museum of Natural History starting at 9 p.m., with Streep and Stanley Tucci (who plays Runway’s art director) present for most of the night. They filmed it roughly 25 times. Wrapped at 3 a.m.

Somewhere in the middle of all that, extras broke for dinner inside the museum’s lobby. “The food was good, they had spaghetti and butter chicken, but it was interesting because I was eating around these fossils of dinosaurs,” Ables said. He also noted that one crew member had a particularly unglamorous assignment: collecting every piece of trash from every extra and sorting it for recycling, piece by piece.

After 15 hours, Ables received a check for $238.50. But the suit had cost him $210. His actual take-home: $28.50. “The suit came out to about $210, so I didn’t lose money in the end,” he said — finding the bright side with the energy of someone who genuinely doesn’t regret any of it.

He made a video about the experience that racked up 18 million combined views. So in terms of content ROI, Matthew Ables arguably had a pretty good day.

@jeremythetea

Thank you @20th Century Studios & @The Devil Wears Prada 2 for inviting me to check out the new Fashion Emergency Vending Machine at Disney Springs! 👠✨ #devilwearsprada #devilwearsprada2 #disneysprings #amc #disneyworld

♬ RUNWAY – Lady Gaga & Doechii

The Machine Behind the Movie

While Ables was sorting out his suit situation in the holding area, Disney’s marketing team was building one of the most elaborate studio campaigns in recent memory. The fictional Runway magazine was actually printed as a real 90-plus-page issue — with Emily Blunt on the cover as her character Emily Charlton — and distributed at newsstands that popped up in New York and Los Angeles. A giant red shoe with a pitchfork heel toured high-traffic plazas in six cities. Branded vending machines at AMC theaters let fans select their “fashion emergency” and receive a L’Oréal product or a copy of the magazine in return.

The world premiere at Lincoln Center on April 20 turned the entire courtyard into a fashion runway — tented, draped in silk and sheer fabric, and streamed live on Disney+, Hulu, TikTok, and ABC News. Partners included Dior, Samsung, Mercedes-Maybach, and Google, which recreated Runway’s fashion closet with a virtual try-on activation. Starbucks sent three assistants and an intern in green trench coats to deliver coffee on the red carpet. Grey Goose temporarily rebranded as Cerulean Goose and served reimagined espresso martinis inspired by Miranda Priestly’s coffee order.

“We decided that we were not going to do a standard step-and-repeat or anything that looked standard at a movie premiere, but instead, we were going to make it feel like the fashion event of the season,” said Lylle Breier, EVP of global marketing partnerships at Disney. Twenty official promotional partners. Some collaborations two years in the making. A campaign that Breier described simply as: “Everybody wants this.”

Miranda Priestly would probably find something to criticize. But $253 million in six days suggests the rest of the world disagrees.