The first box office numbers are in for the movie a Paramount insider told Cosmic Book News to watch.
Practical Magic 2 is heading for a global opening between $58 million and $63 million, per Deadline’s box office preview.
Warner Bros. projects $30 million to $35 million in the U.S. at 4,000 theaters. Deadline pegs the domestic start closer to $40 million, with $18 million to $23 million more coming from 77 overseas markets.
‘Women Pictures,’ Remember?
On September 4, a Paramount insider told Cosmic Book News that the incoming regime wants star vehicles for adult women back in theaters.
“P+WB want to bring back ‘women pictures’ big time. Not teen woke idiocy like Netflix & Amazon, but real ‘vehicles’ for adult / mature women,” the source said.
“Actresses in their 40s-60s will get lots of interesting offers,” the source added.
That report pointed to Practical Magic 2 as the first test. Sandra Bullock is 62. Nicole Kidman is 59. They star in the movie and produce it.
Then on September 9, the same insider named the three movies Paramount is watching, in our report on Warner Bros. finishing sixth at the summer box office, down 76%.
“All eyes on Practical Magic 2 (‘women pictures,’ remember?) and Digger (Cruise’s Oscar lock),” the insider said. “And of course Dune 3 (Pattinson’s Oscar nom backup if Primetime doesn’t do it).”
The first of the three opens Friday, September 11.
The Numbers
Tracking surveys ask moviegoers which upcoming release is their first pick. Practical Magic 2 is hottest with women over 25, followed by women under 25.
Its first-choice number is double what Wuthering Heights had before opening to $32.8 million, and 40% below what Bullock’s The Lost City had before opening to $30.4 million.
Deadline also reports confidence the movie could over-perform, since it’s a sequel to a fan favorite beloved by millennial and Gen Z women.
Nobody projects The Devil Wears Prada 2 money. That one opened to $76.7 million and finished with $220.5 million domestic and $693 million worldwide. But it’s the movie that proved this audience pays, and Anne Hathaway was the first name on our insider’s list of who gets the offers next.
A $30 million-plus opening would also end Spider-Man: Brand New Day‘s six-weekend run at No. 1, per Variety.
Overseas, the movie opens in 77 markets including the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Korea, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, and Spain. No China release.
Susanne Bier directs, with Joey King, Lee Pace, Maisie Williams, and Xolo Maridueña joining Bullock and Kidman, and Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest back as the aunts. Akiva Goldsman, Georgia Pritchett, and Kelly Marcel wrote the script from Alice Hoffman’s 2021 novel, The Book of Magic. It’s rated PG-13 and playing premium large-format screens this weekend, including Dolby.
A $40 Million Opening Would Be A Warner Bros. First For 2026
Warner Bros. hasn’t opened a movie above $40 million all year. The studio is 0-for-8, as we reported.
Supergirl‘s $37.1 million is the studio’s best start of 2026. Deadline’s $40 million estimate would top it.
September is also Warner Bros.’ month. The studio has owned the post-Labor Day weekend since IT in 2017 and holds the top four September openings ever: IT at $123.4 million, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice at $111 million, IT: Chapter Two at $91 million, and The Conjuring: Last Rites at $84 million.
Nobody expects Practical Magic 2 near those numbers. But this weekend historically belongs to Warner Bros.
The original Practical Magic opened to $13.1 million in 1998 and finished with $94.4 million worldwide. Critics gave it 30% on Rotten Tomatoes, and it got written off.
Then it spent almost three decades becoming one of the most-watched titles in the Warner Bros. library and on HBO Max. Per Deadline, that viewership is what got the sequel greenlit.
The sequel sits at 34% on Rotten Tomatoes. The audience this movie is for never cared what critics thought the first time.
The budget is a net $75 million before marketing costs.
Digger opens October 2. Dune: Part Three opens December 18. The merger’s next court date is September 24.
Test one starts Thursday at 2 p.m.
