Practical Magic 2 Brings Bullock and Kidman Back to the Owens Sisters

Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman return as the Owens sisters in Practical Magic 2, in which the pair confront a dark curse threatening to unravel their family.

A sequel with an unusual gap

The original was a modest performer on release that found a far larger audience afterwards, through television, home video and eventually streaming — the classic profile of a film whose reputation was built by repeat viewing rather than by its opening weekend.

A sequel arriving this long after the original is a specific kind of bet. It assumes an audience that has carried affection for the first film across decades, and that this affection is worth more than the novelty a new property would offer.

Why studios keep making this bet

The calculation has become central to how mid-budget films get financed:

• Recognition reduces marketing costs in a crowded market.
• Returning leads guarantee a baseline audience.
• Films with long afterlives have demonstrated durability, which a new title cannot.

The risk is equally well established. Sequels to beloved films are measured against memory rather than against the original as it actually plays — and memory is a considerably more flattering standard than any film can meet.

The wider autumn slate

The season's programming spans an unusually wide range:

• Don't Look Back In Anger, documenting the Gallagher brothers' Oasis reunion tour.
• Kwaidan, Masaki Kobayashi's 1964 Japanese horror anthology, returning to cinemas through Janus Films.
• Rendezvous in Paris, Usher's concert film, in theatres from 12 to 15 September.

What the mix says

Three of those four are built on existing affection — a reunion, a sequel, a restoration. Only the concert film is documenting something that happened recently.

That is not a criticism of any individual title so much as a description of the current exhibition business, which has become considerably better at monetising the past than at financing the unfamiliar.