Practical Magic 2 Targets $58M-$63M Global Opening — SkimNews
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- Practical Magic 2 is eyeing a $40M domestic and $18-23M international start across 77 territories for a $58M-$63M global debut, opening in Korea, France, Germany, Italy, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Spain, and the UK but skipping China.
- Warner Bros owns the top four September domestic openings, led by IT: Chapter One's record $123.4M bow, followed by Beetlejuice Beetlejuice ($111M), IT: Chapter Two ($91M), and The Conjuring: Last Rites ($84M).
- First-choice tracking for Practical Magic 2 runs 100% above Wuthering Heights' $32.8M opening but 40% below Bullock's The Lost City ($30.4M), with women over 25 the strongest demo.
- Critics rate Practical Magic 2 at 34% on Rotten Tomatoes — nearly identical to the original's 30% — while the 1998 film opened to $13.1M and grossed $94.4M worldwide before finding a second life on HBO Max that spurred the sequel's greenlight.
- Practical Magic 2 cost a net $75M before P&A and unspools in 4,000 U.S./Canada theaters with PLFs including Dolby, starting 2 p.m. Thursday previews; the original's enduring library viewership is cited as the catalyst for the sequel.
- Competing releases this weekend include Neon's Hope (a sci-fi hit in South Korea, opening at 1,560 U.S. theaters with Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander), Angels Studios' Runner starring Alan Ritchson and Owen Wilson, Focus Features' The Uprising with Andrew Garfield, and Disney's Oasis: Don't Look Back at Anger concert documentary.
Why it matters: Warner Bros has staked a net $75M production budget on Practical Magic 2 to extend a summer season that hit a record $4.76 billion domestically, hoping the 1998 cult favorite's HBO Max afterlife translates to a four-day opening. Tracking shows the film is strong with women 25+ but lukewarm with critics at 34% on Rotten Tomatoes — and the $30M-$35M North American range the studio targets falls well below the $76.7M Devil Wears Prada 2 bow that the report explicitly cites as the comparison every exhibitor wants to see.
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