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It’s a Spooky Season miracle: Hocus Pocus might somehow win the weekend box office
The Industry Oct 05, 2020
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Photo: Rebecca Smeyne (Getty Images) Although it’s now achieved a cult status among Halloween fans of a certain age—powered by some charismatic performances from its witchy leads, lingering adolescent crushes on the sarcastic cat man, and a thick, warm syrup of nostalgia—Disney’s Hocus Pocus was pretty much a disaster when it landed at the box office in 1993. (It didn’t help that the studio decided to roll such an overtly autumnal kids movie out in July .) Opening against Free Willy , the film landed at fourth place at the box office on its opening weekend, a performance that didn’t necessarily inspire joyful cries of “Amuck, amuck, amuck!” It’s 2020, though, a.k.a. the year in which time has no meaning. And so it’s only somewhat surprising to learn today that Hocus Pocus might finally achieve the box office dominance it was denied back in its original run—and it only took the near-complete collapse of the U.S. film industry to do it. See, the Bette Midler vehicle is back in theaters right now, as part of the industry’s still-running attempts to find something, anything, that will lure people back into the tight, breath-sharing confines of their dark and drafty incubation […]
