Practical Magic 2 Nears $100 Million Worldwide One Month Into Its Box Office Run

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2026

Some spells take a month to fully reveal themselves. When Practical Magic 2 opened September 11, Warner Bros. brought the whole coven back together — Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman returning as Sally and Gillian Owens, a full 28 years after the original — and the sequel conjured an estimated $30 million from 4,146 North American theaters, landing at No. 1. It was more than double the 1998 film’s $13.1 million debut. But the number landed at the low end of expectations, and the weeks since have told a more complicated story about what nostalgia is worth at the box office in 2026.

02 The debut weekend, by the numbers

The three-day breakdown, per Boxoffice Pro’s weekend estimates: $13.1 million on Friday (including $4.7 million in Thursday previews), $10.1 million on Saturday and $6.8 million on Sunday — a front-loaded shape that suggested the core fanbase showed up first and fast. The $7,236 per-screen average was solid if unspectacular. Overseas, the film added an estimated $16 million from 77 international markets, taking the global opening to $46 million. Top territories were the United Kingdom ($3.9M), Australia ($2.2M) and Mexico ($1.2M).

Context matters here. The debut ended the six-weekend domestic reign of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, dethroning the superhero juggernaut at last. And it landed squarely on par with two useful reference points: Bullock’s last theatrical starring role, The Lost City, which opened to $30.45 million in 2022 before legging out to $105.3 million; and last year’s female-driven revival Freakier Friday, which bowed to $28.58 million on its way to $94.18 million domestic. The audience skewed heavily toward the fans the movie was made for — 67% Caucasian, 22% Hispanic, 6% African-American, 2% Asian, per Boxoffice Pro’s demographic read.

03 A win at the low end of expectations

Here’s the asterisk on the No. 1 finish: $30 million was well below the industry’s pre-release hopes. Boxoffice Pro’s long-range forecast had put the domestic opening range at $30 million to $40 million, and the final number scraped the bottom of that band — and the bottom of Warner Bros.’ own $30 million to $35 million projection, per the Associated Press. The sequel was clearly designed to tap the same female-driven audience that turned Wicked into a phenomenon, but the magic didn’t scale the same way.

Reactions split the way they often do for legacy sequels. Critics hexed it at 39% on Rotten Tomatoes, while audiences gave it 92% — and PostTrak had it at 4.5 out of 5 stars. The B+ CinemaScore was middling, the kind of grade that says “the fans were satisfied” without promising they’ll bring friends. It’s a pattern the fall box office keeps repeating: the faithful show up opening weekend, and then the question is whether anyone else does.

04 Why the original still matters

The 1998 Practical Magic was no blockbuster. It opened to $13.1 million in October 1998 and finished its domestic run at $46.85 million — modest numbers that belie what the film became: a generational cult favorite, passed down through cable marathons, streaming queues and Halloween-season rewatches. Based on Alice Hoffman’s novel, the story of the Owens sisters — witches laboring under a family curse that kills any man they fall in love with — found its real audience in the years after theaters.

That afterlife is exactly what Warner Bros. was buying. Reviving a $46.85 million domestic performer from three decades ago is a bet that cultural memory converts to ticket sales — and on opening weekend, it did, to the tune of 2.3 times the original’s debut. The Halloween-season horror surge helped: with audiences already hunting for spooky-season fare, a witchy legacy sequel with two of the biggest stars of the ’90s was always going to have a lane.

05 One month later: where the spell stands

The staying power, though, took an early knock. In its second weekend, Practical Magic 2 fell 59% to $12.2 million domestically, surrendering the top spot to Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil reboot. As of the first week of October, the sequel sits at roughly $65 million domestic and just under $100 million worldwide — it has already passed the original’s entire domestic total, but the trajectory is flattening fast.

The October frame has been unforgiving to everything that isn’t new. Over the October 2–4 weekend, the thriller Verity opened to $32.6 million while Practical Magic 2 slipped to ninth place with $2.6 million, per weekend estimates — a steep fall for a film that was No. 1 less than a month earlier, but a familiar one for fan-driven titles that burn bright and fast. The question now is whether the Owens sisters have one more act left: Halloween-season rewatches built the original’s cult, and the holiday corridor is exactly where this sequel’s audience lives.

The math is the interesting part. The film carries a reported $75 million production budget, financed 50/50 with Alcon — so Warner Bros. isn’t carrying the full load, but the bar for a real theatrical success is meaningfully higher than the opening weekend suggested. Against that, a $30 million domestic debut and a $46 million global bow read less like a triumph and more like a question: was this the ceiling for the Owens sisters, or just the floor? The fall slate isn’t getting any less crowded — horror is having a moment everywhere right now — and the sequel’s second-month legs will decide whether the studio’s nostalgia bet pays off.

Friday $13.1M (incl. $4.7M Thursday previews), Saturday $10.1M, Sunday $6.8M. 1998’s Practical Magic: $13.1M opening, $46.85M domestic total — now a cult Halloween-season favorite. ~$65M domestic, ~$99M worldwide; second weekend fell 59% to $12.2M. Reported $75M production budget, financed 50/50 with Alcon.