Practical Magic 2 Casts a $28M Opening Spell — Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman End Spider-Man's 6-Week Box Office Reign

Practical Magic 2 Just Broke Spider-Man's Spell at the Box Office

After six straight weekends of web-slinging domination, Spider-Man: Brand New Day has finally been dethroned. The new box office queens? Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, whose witchy reunion in Practical Magic 2 conjured a $28 million domestic opening to take No. 1, according to reports from Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter.

For Warner Bros. and Alcon Entertainment, that is exactly the fall kickoff they were hoping for after a record-shattering summer that pulled in $4.76 billion domestically.

How Practical Magic 2 Pulled Off the Upset

Practical Magic 2 whipped up $4.7 million in Thursday previews before cruising to its $28M weekend. Pre-release tracking had pegged it around $30 million domestic, with a global outlook of $58M-$63M — a huge leap from the 1998 original.

Remember: the first Practical Magic, directed by Griffin Dunne and released on October 16, 1998, opened to just $13.1 million. The sequel more than doubled that pace, proving millennial nostalgia is pure box office magic.

The sequel brings back Bullock as Sally Owens and Kidman as Gillian Owens, the cursed Owens sisters. New blood joins the coven too, including Joey King, Maisie Williams, Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing, with director Susanne Bier behind the camera. That mix of legacy stars plus Gen-Z favorites gave Warner Bros. a four-quadrant audience most fall releases would kill for.

What This Means for the Fall Box Office

Let us be real — a $28M post-Labor Day opening will not break records like Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey ($1.68B global) or Spider-Man: Brand New Day did this summer. But it does something more important: it keeps theaters alive.

• Spider-Man: Brand New Day — ends its 6-week No. 1 streak, still a summer monster
• The Uprising — Andrew Garfield's new action-drama stumbled at No. 6 with a soft debut
• Practical Magic 2 — captured female audiences (around 68% of opening weekend, per exit polls) that superhero movies often miss
• Fall slate ahead — Heart of the Beast (Brad Pitt), Dune: Part Three, and Avengers: Doomsday all waiting in the wings

Analysts note that counter-programming worked perfectly here. While Tom Holland's Spider-Man played to young males, Practical Magic 2 pulled in millennial women who grew up quoting the original on sleepover VHS nights — plus their TikTok-generation daughters dragged along for Joey King.

The verdict? Midnight margaritas are back, the Owens curse still sells tickets, and Bullock and Kidman just proved that a 28-year-old cult classic can out-muscle a superhero in 2026. If you needed a sign that theatrical variety is back — this is it.

Did you catch Practical Magic 2 this weekend? Is it better than the 1998 original? Drop your take in the comments and keep it locked on HitLava for more box office breakdowns.