Box Office: ‘Practical Magic 2’ Aims to Dethrone ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ With $40 Million Debut

If it succeeds, it would be the first film to unseat ‘Brand New Day’ from No. 1 since its July release.

After a summer for the record books, movie theater operators are hoping to keep the vibes high with some midnight margaritas. Those celebratory cocktails are part of the fun in Practical Magic 2, a fantasy sequel about witchy sisters played by Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock. Nostalgia should propel the follow-up to $30 million to $40 million from 4,000 North American theaters in its debut, enough to claim No. 1 and end Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s six-weekend reign. If it does, Practical Magic 2 would be the first film to knock Brand New Day out of the top spot since its release back in July, a real measure of just how dominant Sony’s blockbuster has been all summer.

Practical Magic 2 is also aiming for $18 million to $25 million internationally from 77 territories, putting initial global sales anywhere from $48 million to $65 million. Warner Bros. produced the film for $75 million.

A Cult Classic With A Rocky History Behind It

The first Practical Magic was a box office flop that eventually became a beloved favorite. Based on Alice Hoffman’s novel, the 1998 original followed sisters Sally and Gillian Owens, who descend from a long line of witches and find themselves fighting a curse that kills the men they fall in love with. It opened to just $13.1 million and finished with $46.7 million domestic and $94.4 million worldwide against a $60 million budget, alongside a B- CinemaScore and a 30% Rotten Tomatoes score.

Critics were never fans, but the film’s themes of sisterhood and the chemistry between Kidman and Bullock turned it into a fixture on DVD and, later, HBO Max, a long tail of viewership that eventually helped get this sequel greenlit. Warner Bros. had actually tried expanding the franchise once before, developing an HBO prequel series called Rules of Magic in 2019, which was ultimately scrapped before production.

Susanne Bier directed the sequel, which picks up 25 years later as Sally and Gillian’s daughters uncover hidden family secrets while trying to break the curse that’s haunted their lineage. Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing reprised their roles from the original, while Joey King and Maisie Williams joined the cast.

Reviews Are Echoing The Original’s Reception Almost Exactly

Reviews for Practical Magic 2 have not been kind, landing around 32-34% on Rotten Tomatoes, remarkably close to the original’s own 30%. Variety’s Todd Gilchrist called the film “as cumbersome and overlong as the 28-year wait” between chapters, writing that it “delivers a retread of the signposts that made the original a beloved fixture for certain moviegoers, while failing to correct the flaws that made everyone else all but forget it for three decades.” SlashFilm’s Witney Seibold was harsher still, calling it “staggeringly unfunny, and really sloppily assembled” in a 4/10 review.

The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey praised Bullock and Kidman individually but gave the film 2/5 stars, writing that “no one’s seemingly sat down to properly think through what story deserves to be told about these characters nearly three decades down the line.” Given how closely the reviews mirror the original’s reception, and given how that film eventually found its audience anyway, similar late-blooming success isn’t out of the question here, even if this weekend’s numbers hold up better than its critical scores suggest.

A Quieter Weekend Everywhere Else

Also new to theaters is Disney’s music documentary Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger, eyeing a $5 million to $7 million start from 1,200 domestic theaters. The film follows Liam and Noel Gallagher reuniting for their first tour together in 16 years, featuring their first joint interview in two decades. Reception has been rapturous since the documentary premiered at Venice earlier this week.

Two smaller new releases round out the weekend without much box office ambition: Neon’s Cannes-premiered sci-fi film Hope, starring Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander, and Angel Studios’ action thriller Runner, starring Alan Ritchson and Owen Wilson, both expected in the single digits.

As the fall season slowly ramps up, summer holdovers like Brand New Day, The Odyssey, and Coyote vs. Acme will keep rounding out the charts. In the coming days, Brand New Day should surpass 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($936 million, not adjusted for inflation) as the highest-grossing film of all time at the domestic box office. So far, Tom Holland’s latest turn as Peter Parker has generated $923 million domestic and $2.4 billion worldwide.

Joanthan P. Moustakas

Jonathan P. Moustakas founded The Cinema Group in 2020 during the challenges of the pandemic, after losing the vital ability to find community in theaters and escape through the captivating magic of cinema. Feeling profoundly cut off from the vibrant film community he cherished, he sought to create a welcoming home for dedicated cinema fans while providing engaging, daily curated content that resonates with their passions. Years later, The Cinema Group has blossomed from a small collective of loyal fans into a thriving brand that reaches millions of audiences every month across a diverse array of platforms and mediums.

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