Nostalgia for the late ’90s and the start of the 2000s is hitting Hollywood hard. So hard that even movies that were a notorious flop in their day are now set to return as hits. That’s the case with Practical Magic 2, whose advance ticket sales are going so well that they’re already forecasting an opening weekend that will top $40 million in the United States alone. Considering that the first film barely topped 68 million and hemorrhaged money, it gives you something to think about.
Abracadabra at the box office!
Poorly received at the time, Practical Magic has been gaining cult status over the years to the point where today, where, obviously, a whole generation seems to adore it without a second thought. However, Sandra Bullock hasn’t forgotten: “We thought, ‘It’s going to be an incredible movie, people are going to adore it.’ And then, silence. They’d say to us ‘How many women do you need in a movie? How many tones do you need? What kind of movie is this?‘”.
The one who won’t get to enjoy this success is its director, and it still pains the actress: “There’s one thing I want to keep pointing out: Griffin Dunne created this world with us. He let us shine. This movie exists because of him, and he never got to enjoy that success when we made it, so today we’re honoring him”. In fact, he was offered the chance to direct it, but he turned it down because he was sure it needed a feminine touch: Susanne Bier’s, specifically.
Almost 30 years have passed since that first film, and clearly this is the right time to return. We’ll have to see, of course, what its budget is, to know whether it does well at the box office or, on the contrary, whether it has been an even bigger flop than the first film. Not even a good wave of a wand could solve that well enough to make a potential third movie.
