Box Office: ‘Practical Magic 2’ With $4.7M in Thursday Previews — $40M Opening Expected [Updated]

Warner Bros' "Practical Magic 2" is off to a solid start, pulling an estimated $4.7M in Thursday previews after showtimes kicked off at 2 p.m.

Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman are back as the Owens sisters, and the studio is working with a $78M budget — not cheap for a legacy sequel aimed squarely at a specific audience, but not reckless either. The preview number suggests it might come close to matching that total this weekend, with a $40M domestic opening and $75M worldwide.

Critics, predictably, are not on board. The sequel sits at 36% on Rotten Tomatoes. Here's the thing though: they hated the original too. The 1998 film landed at 29% Rotten, and opened with $13M in October 1998 before finishing at $46M domestic. Those are not blockbuster numbers. They're barely respectable numbers. So the obvious question is why anyone greenlit a follow-up nearly three decades later.

The answer is cult status, and it's the oldest story in the business. "Practical Magic" kept playing on cable, over and over, and it picked up serious momentum on home video. That's how films find their second life. An entire generation of women grew up with this movie on in the background, and Warners is betting they'll show up in theaters now. Based on Thursday, that bet looks reasonable.

Bullock and Kidman return for nostalgia's sake, joined by an ensemble that includes Stockard Channing, Dianne Wiest, Joey King, Maisie Williams and Lee Pace.

"Practical Magic" told the story of two witchy sisters, played by Kidman and Bullock, raised by their charmingly oddball aunts in a small town that didn't take kindly to their magical leanings. They also had to deal with a family curse that ensured heartbreak for any man they dared to love.

Susanne Bier is directing — she previously worked with Bullock on "Bird Box" and with Kidman on "The Undoing" and "The Perfect Couple." Bullock reprises her role as Sally Owens, while Kidman returns as her wild-child sister, Gillian.

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August 19, 2019

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Fritz Lang’s ‘M’ Tops the Best Films of the 1930s, According to 100+ Critics

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