Practical Magic 2 Opens to $28 Million as Fall Box Office Slows
Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman’s Warner Bros. sequel takes the top spot, but its debut lands below the studio’s $30 million-$35 million target. The result points to a softer post-summer market even as the 1998 film’s audience turns out.
Practical Magic 2 opened to about $28 million in North America this weekend, according to the box-office reports collected by MSN, giving Warner Bros. the No. 1 movie while exposing how quickly the post-summer market has cooled. Deadline had tracked the sequel toward $30 million, with Warner Bros. and Alcon discussing a $30 million-$35 million range before release. The shortfall is modest, but the timing matters: Deadline expected the full weekend to reach $84.4 million, down 32% from the same frame a year earlier, when The Conjuring: Last Rites launched to $84 million.
For a film built around a beloved 1998 property, $28 million is neither a collapse nor the revival Warner Bros. may have hoped to conjure. It is a solid opening that arrives with a warning attached: older audiences can still make an event of a theatrical release, but they may need a reason to show up on opening night.
Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman reclaim the top spot
Practical Magic 2 played in 4,146 theaters and collected roughly $4.7 million from Thursday previews, The Hollywood Reporter reported. Deadline’s Friday estimate put the film at $13 million for the day, including previews, on its way to a projected $30 million three-day total. The final figure reported through MSN came in lower at $28 million.
That still places the sequel in the same commercial neighborhood as Sandra Bullock’s recent hits. Deadline compared the opening with The Lost City, which began at $30.4 million and finished with $105.3 million domestically, and The Proposal, which opened to $33.6 million in 2009 before reaching $163.9 million.
The comparison is useful, but it also reveals the pressure on Practical Magic 2. Bullock and Nicole Kidman are returning as Sally and Gillian Owens, while Joey King, Maisie Williams, Lee Pace, Xolo Maridueña, Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing join them. The cast gives the film recognizable faces; the weekend shows that recognition can secure a launch even when reviews are rough.
The sequel’s audience is older, female and less impulsive
Deadline reported that 69% of the opening audience was over 25, 36% was over 45 and 78% was female. Those numbers explain why the film’s performance may build more slowly than a superhero or horror release. Deadline described the title as “by appointment viewing” for older women: a group with strong interest, but not always the habit of rushing out on a Thursday night.
The audience response gives Warner Bros. something to work with. Practical Magic 2 earned a B+ CinemaScore, above the original film’s B-, plus a 72% definite recommendation on PostTrak and a 93% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes in Deadline’s Saturday update. The 35-to-49 demographic gave it an A- CinemaScore.
The critical response is a different story. The Hollywood Reporter listed the sequel at 35% on Rotten Tomatoes, only a little above the original’s 29%. Yet that first film opened at $13.1 million in October 1998 and finished with $46.7 million domestically, later finding a larger life with viewers. The sequel is now asking that same affection to work on a much bigger opening weekend.
