As if 28 years hadn’t passed, Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman have returned to the Owens sisters’ roles in ‘Practically Magic 2’, the sequel to the 1998 film that I’m not sure many people were eagerly awaiting. The film opened at No. 1 at the U.S. box office with $30 million in gross.
These numbers aren’t particularly strong, and they sit at the lower end of Warner’s forecast range, though at least it managed to land within that range, something other summer releases haven’t managed to do. With a CinemaScore of B+ from audiences, the film did benefit from a relatively modest budget of $75 million, which should help its run in theaters.
At least the witches have managed to break Tom Holland’s box-office spell in the United States, where it had led for six weeks with ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’. The same cannot be said for the rest of the world, where the film has grossed only $16 million, bringing its total to €46 million.
We don’t yet have official figures for Spain, but early numbers suggest the film will finish the weekend in fourth place here, behind ‘Tadeo Jones and the Marvelous Lamp’, the very ‘Spider-Man’, and ‘The Odyssey’.
Box Office Starts the Season with Weak Openings
The film’s numbers, combined with other weak weekend releases we’ll review next, leave the season’s opening box office at only $86 million, a 9% drop from last week (when Monday was a holiday in the United States) and a 43% drop from the same week last year, which is saying something. Still, so far in 2026, American theaters have accumulated $7.5 billion after a strong summer thanks to ‘Spider-Man’ and ‘The Odyssey’.
These two films, precisely, continue to occupy the following positions in the box office. ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ remains in the second spot with about $8.4 million at the box office in its seventh week, no less. The film has accrued $935 million in the United States and a worldwide total of $2.451 billion, making it the third-highest grossing film of all time. Its gap to the second place currently stands at $348 million, a distance that will be hard to close.
Let us move to the numbers for ‘The Odyssey’, which, remember, has been in theaters two weeks longer than the superhero film. Thus, Nolan’s epic adds another $7.4 million this week in third place, with $600 million accumulated in the United States and a worldwide total of $1.684 billion. With these figures, ‘The Odyssey’ is already the twelfth most-watched film in history, just $14 million away from climbing a position, something it is expected to achieve this week.
The fourth position goes to another weekend release, ‘Runner’, an action-comedy starring Alan Ritchson and Owen Wilson that, for the moment, has only opened in the United States. Not to be confused with ‘The Runner’, Gal Gadot’s film which Prime Video released a few days ago. There’s no big name attached. The former has earned decent reviews from critics and a good response from audiences (A- CinemaScore), so we could call its debut solid, though with that cast one might have expected more. In numbers, its take is $6.43 million.
In fifth place, ‘Coyote vs. Acme’ holds its own in its third week with a solid $6.2 million in gross, for a total of $47.7 million in the United States. The film, which hasn’t yet released in many markets, adds up to $64 million worldwide.
Poor Opening for Andrew Garfield’s New Release
In the second half of the rankings, the indie horror film ‘Buddy’ continues to prove its strong reception with another $3.5 million at the box office and just a 39.3% drop from the previous week. The film has grossed $21.3 million to date on a budget of only $3 million.
In seventh place, fourth week for ‘Insidious: Beyond the Further’, which adds another $3.3 million to its $60 million gross, another film that turns a profit thanks to its modest budget. Worldwide it has surpassed $155 million in gross.
The following spots are filled by two premieres. In eighth place we find ‘Hope’, a South Korean horror/monster movie that features Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander as the main draws for its international distribution. It manages to gross $3.3 million in the United States despite playing in only 1,560 theaters. Its international total is $41.2 million, largely thanks to South Korea, where it opened with strong success in July.
A place further down, in ninth, sits ‘The Uprising’, a British film starring Andrew Garfield that Focus is releasing in the United States after paying just under $12 million for it. It will have a hard time turning a profit, since it opened with $3.2 million and without much enthusiasm from critics or audiences.
Completing this weekend’s box office is ‘By Any Means’, which in its second week earns $2.5 million for a total of $13.48 million.
That’s the top 10 for the weekend’s box office in the United States. Next week we’ll be watching the release of the Resident Evil reboot, and keeping an eye on how Practically Magic 2 progresses.
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