It is a glorious morning for Hocus Pocus as the trio of witches starring Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy, and Sarah Jessica Parker put a spell on moviegoers again nearly three decades after the original release, and now is leading the box office.
Disney re-released the 1993 Halloween cult comedy classic to theaters this weekend and collected $650,000 on Friday, currently playing in 2,570 U.S. cinemas. The re-release is expected to generate $1 million in the ticket sales over the weekend. It puts Hocus Pocus in the No. 2 spot behind Tenet.
The Disney re-release has caused something of an unexpected spell at the box office. Given the difficult time that the world is going through, especially in the U.S., where it has been hard for any new major studio wide releases makes it a welcome surprise.
Those box office numbers’ receipts put Hocus Pocus ahead of the more recently released title like New Mutants, Russel Crowe’s Unhinged, and mystery-thriller Infidel. The box office has started to come to a grinding halt due to the pandemic, and with most of the studios delaying their major movies into 2021 or later. The re-release of Hocus Pocus and no new theatrical releases, there wasn’t much competition for Hocus Pocus to make it big at the box office.
A sequel to Hocus Pocus is currently in the works at Disney Plus, and Adam Shankman is directing it. Shankman is best known for Hairspray, Step Up, and A Walk to Remember.
There is no word yet if any of the original cast members will return for the sequel.