‘Practical Magic’ Opens to $28 Million as Post-Summer Box Office Faces Sluggish Start

After six weeks, the reign of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” atop the box office charts has come to an end as Warner Bros./Alcon’s “Practical Magic 2” has taken No. 1 on the first post-summer weekend. But the legacyquel starring Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock has work to do to ease Warner Bros.’ 2026 box office woes after earning a $13 million opening day from 4,146 locations, setting the $75 million-budgeted film for a lackluster $28-30 million domestic opening weekend. As with the first “Practical Magic” released by in 1998, critics aren’t impressed by the film, giving it a 37% Rotten Tomatoes score. But the fans who make up the film’s cult fanbase, who are primarily millennial women, have enjoyed the sequel, giving it an early 93% RT audience score and a B+ on CinemaScore, a grade that is an improvement on the B- of its predecessor. PostTrak scores came in at 4.5/5. The task now for “Practical Magic 2” will be to expand interest beyond that fanbase and become a popular option for female moviegoers in a September landscape that will include movies like Sony’s male-skewing “Resident Evil” and DreamWorks’ female-focused but family-leaning animated film “Forgotten Island.” When CinemaScore polls are broken down, opening night demos show that “Practical Magic 2,” as expected, got a Friday night crowd that was 75% female. But the highest grades came from the 35-49 demo with an A- while moviegoers under 35 gave the film a B. With 56% of the opening night crowd over the age of 35, “Practical Magic 2” has some work to do expanding its audience to the Gen Z demo that is needed for successful legacyquels. In second is “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” with $8.7 million in its seventh weekend, putting it on course to pass “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” as the all-time domestic box office record holder before inflation on Monday with a running domestic cume of $935 million. Universal’s “The Odyssey” is in third with $8.1 million in its ninth weekend, which is not only enough to push it past $600 million in domestic grosses but also now makes it Universal’s unadjusted highest grossing film of all time, passing the $1.67 billion global gross of “Jurassic World” in 2015. Ketchup’s “Coyote vs. Acme” is in fourth in its third weekend, continuing to hold strong with $6.3 million as its domestic total reaches $47.8 million. Completing the top 5 is the Angel action film “Runner” starring Alan Ritchson and Owen Wilson, which is opening to $6 million from 2,528 locations. More to come…