The domestic box office saw a dynamic weekend, with the Michael Jackson biopic, "Michael," reclaiming the coveted number-one spot. Hot on its heels was "The Devil Wears Prada 2," which secured the second position. Both films significantly outperformed the previous weekend's champion, "Mortal Kombat II," which slid to fourth place, just below the burgeoning horror hit "Obsessions." Meanwhile, "The Sheep Detectives" demonstrated a surprisingly strong hold in its second weekend, contrasting sharply with Guy Ritchie's "In the Grey," which recorded his weakest domestic box-office debut in nearly two decades. "Michael" has now surpassed the $700 million mark, steadily advancing towards the $1 billion milestone, while "The Devil Wears Prada 2" also celebrated a majestic financial achievement.

The highly anticipated sequel, "The Devil Wears Prada 2," released two decades after its predecessor, showcased remarkable success, accumulating nearly $550 million globally, with $175 million from North American markets and $370 million internationally. This financial performance places it ahead of recent literary adaptations like "The Housemaid" and "It Ends with Us." The film meticulously reassembled its original creative team, including director David Frankel, screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna, composer Theodore Shapiro, and cinematographer Michael Ballhaus. Crucially, the central cast — Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Stanley Tucci, and Emily Blunt — all reprised their iconic roles, contributing to the sequel's reported $100 million production budget. The original film, a generational classic with a 76% Rotten Tomatoes score, had grossed approximately $325 million worldwide against a $40 million budget. The sequel itself garnered a "Certified Fresh" 78% on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics praising Meryl Streep's performance and the film's incisive commentary on modern media. Anne Hathaway, a key star in this success, is also slated to appear in Christopher Nolan's upcoming adaptation of Homer’s "The Odyssey."

This upcoming project, "The Odyssey," has unexpectedly become a focal point in a broader controversy surrounding the Academy's Representation and Inclusion Standards. These standards, which became a Best Picture requirement for the 2024 eligibility year, have drawn sharp criticism, notably from figures like Elon Musk. Musk publicly accused Nolan of "desecrating the Odyssey" to meet what he termed "DEI lies" for Academy Award eligibility, specifically targeting the casting of Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy. However, a closer examination of the Academy's rules, as clarified by figures like Andy Samberg in 2020, reveals that such criticisms are largely misinformed.

The Academy’s Representation and Inclusion Standards require a film to meet only two of four specific criteria. These standards are designed to encourage diversity across various aspects of filmmaking: Standard A focuses on on-screen representation (lead/significant supporting actor from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group, or a 30% ensemble from two underrepresented groups, or a storyline centered on one); Standard B pertains to the creative team and crew (department heads, broader crew, or 30% crew composition); Standard C addresses paid apprenticeships and training within the distribution or financing company; and Standard D examines in-house senior executives or consultants involved in the company’s development, marketing, publicity, and distribution.

Contrary to popular misconception and the amplified outrage, all 98 past Best Picture winners in the Academy's history would easily clear these standards. The "two-of-four" math provides significant flexibility. Furthermore, Standards C and D, which relate to the distributor, are scored once per company and apply to all its releases. This means a major studio like Warner Bros. or a platform like Netflix, once they meet C and D, clear those standards for all their films, regardless of the individual film's on-screen or crew diversity. Therefore, films like "Casablanca," "Barbie," "Roma," and "Mank" all benefit from their distributors' compliance. Standards A and B are where films legitimately differ, concerning the movie itself. Many winners meet these criteria naturally: 56 winners have a documented Standard A basis, and 30 have a documented Standard B basis, often through the inclusion of women or underrepresented people in creative leadership roles long before these rules were conceptualized. This demonstrates that the supposed "DEI requirements" largely describe what many successful films already encompassed, rather than imposing radical new barriers.

Indeed, it is remarkably difficult to produce a film that *fails* to meet these standards. Such a film would necessitate an all-white cast devoid of disabled or queer characters, an entirely male creative leadership with no women in key roles like writing, producing, editing, costume, makeup, or casting, and a distributor whose modern operations fail to clear Standards C or D. Even films frequently cited by critics, such as "Ordinary People," "Schindler’s List," "Titanic," "The Departed," "Spotlight," and "Oppenheimer," comfortably meet these benchmarks with "flying colors." Even Matt Walsh's documentary "Am I Racist?", distributed by the alt-right Daily Wire, met the requirements to be on the "Reminder List" for 2024, indicating it fulfilled the necessary diversity criteria. The suggestion that "white savior" narratives like "Driving Miss Daisy" and "Green Book" would be excluded is also unfounded; they too clear the bar without question.

The core of the recent uproar, particularly from Elon Musk, appears to stem not from the eligibility rules themselves, but from specific casting choices, such as Lupita Nyong’o’s role as Helen of Troy and the inclusion of Elliot Page. Nyong'o is an acclaimed, Oscar-winning actress, and her casting is a testament to her talent, not a mere tick-box exercise for diversity. Her co-stars in "The Odyssey" include major names like Matt Damon, Tom Holland, and Charlize Theron, yet the focus of criticism disproportionately lands on Nyong'o and Page, highlighting a clear bias. Historically, women and people of color have been significantly underrepresented in key filmmaking roles, particularly in producing. For instance, out of 621 Best Picture-nominated films, only 126 included at least one woman producer, with Black women producers appearing in only three nominations, and Asian women producers only recently, starting with Kwak Sin-ae for "Parasite." The Academy's standards, therefore, are not about gatekeeping; they are a low benchmark designed to prompt industry-wide reflection and encourage a broader consideration of talent across all backgrounds, ultimately asking people to simply think about representation.