LOS ANGELES – Older actresses are not bankable? The blockbuster era for traditional comedies is over, with streaming having siphoned away the audience?

American actress Meryl Streep, 76, stepped back into Miranda Priestly’s sky-high heels over the weekend and demolished those Hollywood orthodoxies.

The Devil Wears Prada 2, an old-fashioned workplace comedy, collected roughly US$77 million (S$98 million) in cinemas in North America from May 1 through May 3, according to Comscore, a data service. It was the biggest domestic opening for a traditional comedy since 2015, when Pitch Perfect 2 sold US$69 million in tickets over its first three days, or roughly US$97 million after adjusting for inflation.

The film, rated PG-13 in Singapore, took in an additional US$157 million overseas, for a global total of about US$234 million (S$297 million).

Women overwhelmingly powered the results; ticket buyers were 76 per cent female, according to PostTrak, a film industry research service. Roughly 60 per cent of the audience was 35 and older. Hollywood typically considers a ticket buyer over age 34 to be “old”.