LOS ANGELES, September 13 — The story begins with a resurrection nobody in Hollywood saw coming, and it belongs to two women who first cast this particular spell nearly three decades ago. On the weekend of September 11-13, Warner Bros.’ Practical Magic 2 opened to an estimated $30 million domestically, ending Spider-Man: Brand New Day‘s six-week reign atop the North American box office. The sequel reunites Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman, who starred in the 1998 original.
That first film arrived a year after Bullock’s Speed 2: Cruise Control, and it was a commercial disappointment. With a reported budget between $60 million and $75 million, it opened to $13.1 million and grossed $46.6 million domestic and $68 million worldwide.
For those involved, the sequel’s debut is a reversal of that history.
A career-best for Kidman
For Kidman, the $30 million opening is the biggest of her career as a lead or co-lead, surpassing the $22.8 million debut of 2005’s The Interpreter. She has never had a $100 million domestic grosser as a headliner; her closest were The Others at $96.5 million and Cold Mountain at $95.6 million. Bullock’s numbers tell a different story.
The sequel’s $30 million debut marks her fifth consecutive opening of $30 million or higher and the seventh of her last nine headlining films to reach that threshold. Her previous film, The Lost City, opened to $30.4 million and finished with $105.3 million domestic.
Warner Bros. hopes Practical Magic 2 shows similar legs, which would make it Bullock’s 10th $100 million-plus domestic grosser. Before 2009’s The Proposal, Bullock had never opened a film above $17 million, yet Speed, A Time to Kill and Miss Congeniality each grossed over $100 million. At its heart, this is a story about a star whose commercial power was built slowly, then arrived all at once.
The web-slinger’s long shadow
Spider-Man: Brand New Day added $8.4 million in its seventh weekend, pushing its domestic total to $935.1 million. It is now just days away from passing Star Wars: The Force Awakens‘ $936.6 million to become the all-time domestic gross leader. Across 11 live-action and animated Spider-Man films, Sony has grossed over $4.6 billion domestically and over $6.7 billion internationally, for a combined $11.3 billion.
No live-action entry has earned less than $700 million worldwide, and the two animated films have combined for over $1 billion. Brand New Day alone stands at $2.452 billion globally. Elsewhere, Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey crossed $600 million domestic in its ninth weekend, becoming the 18th film ever to reach that milestone in its initial run.
It added $7.4 million, bringing its total to $600.5 million, about $5 million ahead of Marvel’s The Avengers at the same point. Its ninth weekend topped Avengers‘ $4.42 million and Deadpool & Wolverine‘s $3.81 million. The Odyssey remains more than $25 million away from the all-time R-rated domestic record. What to watch next: whether Practical Magic 2 holds its audience through the coming weekends, and whether Brand New Day clears the final stretch to the domestic record it has been chasing all summer.
