Early Spookiness
It’s September, which means people are ready for witches and ghosts and ghouls. Spooky season is here and Practical Magic 2 will not only appeal with the supernatural aspect, but it’s also a legacy sequel to a movie that wasn’t exactly a huge hit back in 1998, with it only making a grand total of $46 million domestically. However, the star power and concept is there. While the Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman film doesn’t have a massive audience appeal, we still expect it to take the top spot from Spider-Man: Brand New Day this weekend.
As a smaller property, some analysts anticipated the movie to have a humble early opening. According to Deadline, it actually surpassed that estimate with early Thursday preview screenings coming in at $4.7 million. This figure came in with the movie playing on 3,200 screens. This weekend, Practical Magic 2 will have some advantage with premium theater showings, including Dolby Theatres.
The film hasn’t been well-received critically, as it currently stands with a 35% aggregate rating. There has yet to be an audience rating established.
What did we think?
Our Michael Conway was pretty lukewarm on the film, as he gave it an average 6 out of 10 review and said, “I didn’t hate Practical Magic 2. Not even close. When it charms, it really charms. But there’s a difference between bringing back the ingredients people loved and understanding why those ingredients worked in the first place.
It isn’t the worst legacy sequel I’ve seen, and it certainly isn’t the best. The Devil Wears Prada 2 recently showed how you can revisit beloved characters years later while still giving the sequel a reason to exist beyond nostalgia.
Practical Magic 2 never quite gets there. At the end of the day, this is another decades-late sequel that reunites almost everyone you wanted to see, gives you enough nostalgia to make you happy you came back, and then reminds you that sometimes you really can’t recreate whatever strange combination made the original special. The Owens sisters still have some magic left. I just wish the movie around them had a little more of it.”
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