Project Hail Mary Is Streaming Now, and Devil Wears Prada 2 Hits Disney+ in a Week

Quick correction up top, because I have seen it botched all over the internet this week. Project Hail Mary and The Devil Wears Prada 2 are not both streaming yet. Project Hail Mary has been on MGM+ since June 18. Devil Wears Prada 2 lands on Disney+ and Hulu on July 29, so as of right now it is still theaters and paid rental only. If someone tells you to fire it up on Hulu tonight, they are a week early. Put July 29 on the calendar and read on.

Now the fun part, because these two movies quietly told us a lot about where the box office is headed, and I have opinions on both.

Project Hail Mary: the book was already a screenplay

I read Andy Weir's novel when it came out, and my honest reaction was that it barely needed adapting. Weir writes like a screenwriter who happens to publish books. The Martian was the same way, problem, attempt, failure, better attempt, and you turn pages because the structure is a machine. Project Hail Mary is that machine again, except this time the lonely-scientist-in-space setup gets a twist I will not spoil here, and that twist is the entire emotional engine of the story. If you know, you know. If you do not, go in blind, it is worth it.

The movie mostly gets it right. Ryan Gosling is doing his affable-guy-in-over-his-head thing, which is exactly the register the book's narrator lives in, and Amazon MGM clearly spent the money where it counted. It opened in theaters March 20 and went on to roughly 680 million dollars worldwide, which is the number I keep chewing on. That is a hard sci-fi movie, no franchise, no capes, no shared universe, clearing numbers most tentpoles would kill for. Yes, it is technically based on a book, but to the average ticket buyer this played as an original. The lesson studios should take: original-feeling sci-fi still sells, you just have to attach a movie star and actually finish the script. The lesson they will probably take instead: greenlight more space movies with Gosling. I will accept either outcome.

Devil Wears Prada 2: the number that actually shocked me

Here is the stat that made me put my coffee down. The Devil Wears Prada 2 opened May 1 and has pulled in about 677 million dollars worldwide. A legacy sequel to a 2006 workplace dramedy, twenty years later, is sitting basically neck and neck with a Ryan Gosling space epic and outdrawing most superhero movies released in the last few years. If you pitched me that in 2024 I would have laughed at you.

But it tracks, and I think the why is pretty simple. Comfort IP is beating capes right now. Audiences got burned by too many franchise entries that required homework, three shows and two movies of it, just to follow the plot. Devil Wears Prada 2 asks for none of that. You know Miranda Priestly, you know Andy, you know the vibe, and the movie is essentially a guarantee: two hours of exactly the thing you liked before, with better clothes and two decades of pent-up affection behind it. People are not paying for surprise right now, they are paying for certainty. A superhero movie might be great. A Prada sequel with the original cast will be the thing you expect, and in 2026 that is the stronger sales pitch. I am a Marvel guy and it pains me a little to type that, but the numbers do not care about my feelings.

Where to watch both without paying twice

The service section, because streaming availability has become genuinely annoying to track.

Project Hail Mary is on MGM+ right now, and has been since June 18. Almost nobody has a standalone MGM+ subscription, and you do not need one. The cheapest route for most people is the MGM+ add-on through Prime Video. Tack it onto the Prime account you already have, watch the movie, and cancel the add-on before the next billing cycle if you do not want to keep it. Do not rent it on digital when it is sitting inside an add-on you can trial-and-drop.

The Devil Wears Prada 2 hits Disney+ and Hulu on July 29. If you already pay for either, your total additional cost is zero and your total wait is about a week. Renting it on PVOD this week costs real money to save seven days, which only makes sense if you have a watch party locked for this weekend. Otherwise, patience is free.

Which one I actually care about

Easy answer for me, and it should surprise nobody who has read this blog for more than a week. I am the sci-fi guy. Project Hail Mary is the one I have already watched and will watch again, partly to see how the adaptation handles the back half of the book, partly because the central relationship in that story is one of my favorites in modern sci-fi, full stop. Devil Wears Prada 2 is a July 29 watch in our house, and I expect to enjoy it exactly as much as it wants me to, which is the whole design of the thing.

The real takeaway from both: 1.3 billion combined dollars for a book adaptation and a twenty-year-later sequel, while franchise fatigue eats everything else. Studios chase what works. Expect a lot more of both.

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