Practical Magic 2 conjured up a win over the unstoppable Spider-Man: Brand New Day as the box office had a sleepier weekend overall amid its shift to fall.
Earning a B+ CinemaScore from audiences, Practical Magic 2 opened to around $30 million domestically for the weekend, hitting the low end of Warner Bros.’ projected range. Director Susanne Bier’s sequel launched in over 4,000 North American locations and carries a $75 million production budget. Internationally, the movie added $16 million from 77 overseas markets.
Overall, the domestic weekend stands at roughly $86 million cumulatively, according to Rentrak, putting it around 43 percent below the comparable weekend from 2025, when Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba — Infinity Castle debuted to a stunning $70.6 million. This weekend’s box office is down 9 percent from the previous frame, while the year-to-date total for 2026 stands at $7.5 billion after a hot summer, marking a 19 percent improvement over this point last year.
For Practical Magic 2, Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman reprise their roles as the Owens sisters from the 1998 original that topped out at $46 million domestically for its initial run. Adapting the work of author Alice Hoffman, Practical Magic 2 focuses on witches Sally (Bullock) and Gillian (Kidman) as they look to end the curse that has prevented their family members from finding love. Joey King, Maisie Williams and Lee Pace round out the cast for the co-production between Warner Bros. and Alcon Entertainment that hails from Di Novi Pictures, Fortis Films and Blossom Films.
The sequel has had trouble working its magic on critics, as it holds a 39 percent approval rating from reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes, which is a bit better than the score of 29 for the original. The new one has a 92 percent audience score. In her review for The Hollywood Reporter, critic Angie Han wrote that Practical Magic 2 “works better the less you look for any sense of logic, and the more you just lean into the transient joys of watching these [two] actresses bounce off each other.”
This marks the first frame without Spider-Man: Brand New Day in the top spot since its July 31 release, as the Tom Holland film has led the domestic box office for the past six weekends. Filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton’s blockbuster is expected to gross around $8.4 million for the weekend to take second place, bringing its domestic cume to $935.171 million. This puts it just shy of taking the top spot on the all-time domestic chart, as it remains behind the $936.6 million domestic total for 2015’s Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens.
Taking third place for the weekend is Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, which is heading for around $7.4 million. The Universal Pictures title brings its domestic total to $600.5 million in its ninth frame. It also becomes the studio’s highest-grossing global release ever, besting 2015’s Jurassic World.
In fourth place is Angel Studios’ Runner, as director Scott Waugh’s action-comedy debuted with a frame of around $6.4 million. Earning an A- CinemaScore, the film stars Alan Ritchson and Owen Wilson and centers on an organ delivery gone wrong. Runner opened in more than 2,500 North American theaters and boasts a 71 percent approval rating from reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes, with critic Frank Scheck’s review for THR noting that it “doesn’t prove boring for a second but has trouble managing its disparate tones.”
Andrew Garfield in The Uprising.
Focus Features
Coyote vs. Acme occupies fifth this weekend with around $6.2 million domestically. Ketchup Entertainment’s resurrected Looney Tunes feature continues its solid run and looks to pull in around $47.8 million after three weeks.
It was a bumpy start for Andrew Garfield’s historical action feature The Uprising. Paul Greengrass‘ film made an estimated $3.25 million for the weekend from more than 2,000 North American screens after Focus Features acquired domestic rights for under $12 million. The Uprising holds a 53 percent critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with Scheck’s review deeming it “skillfully made and acted, but exhausting.”
Filmmaker Na Hong-jin’s monster epic Hope hit 1,500 North American theaters from Neon, grossing $950,000 on Friday for an estimated $3.3 million domestically for the weekend. Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung and Hoyeon star in the South Korean feature that THR chief film critic David Rooney praised for “virtuoso camera work, pulse-pounding score, adrenalized pacing and sharply drawn characters.”
Music documentary Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger opened to $1.4 million from 1,225 North American locations for Disney.
This story was first published on Sept. 12 at 9:26 a.m.
