Some movies are hits the minute they arrive. Practical Magic took the scenic route, and Bullock and Kidman eventually got to watch the movie find an audience nobody could have predicted back in 1998.
When the movie opened in 1998, it was not exactly greeted like a future classic. Critics were rough on it, the box office was disappointing, and the idea that Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman would return nearly three decades later as the Owens sisters probably sounded pretty unlikely.
Then people kept watching it. Cable television helped. DVD helped. Streaming eventually gave another generation a chance to discover Sally, Gillian and that wonderfully strange Owens family.
And somewhere along the way, Practical Magic stopped being a movie that did not quite connect in theaters and became something people genuinely loved.
Bullock and Kidman watched Practical Magic find its audience
That slow discovery may be one of the best parts of the movie’s story. You did not need to see Practical Magic opening weekend in 1998 to become a fan.
Maybe you caught it on cable one night. Maybe somebody handed you the DVD. Maybe it became part of your fall movie rotation years later. However people found it, they kept finding it.
Then social media changed everything. Fans who once loved the movie mostly on their own could suddenly find thousands of other people who knew exactly why midnight margaritas, the Owens house and Sally and Gillian’s relationship meant so much to them.
The movie had finally found its community.
Bullock and Kidman saw the fandom grow
While talking about Practical Magic 2, Bullock and Kidman reflected on something they could never really have imagined when the original came out. Fans can connect with one another now.
Back in 1998, loving a movie usually meant talking about it with friends, family or maybe somebody at work. There was no giant online community waiting to dissect every scene, celebrate favorite moments and introduce the film to people who had never seen it.
That changed over the years. The people who loved Practical Magic found one another, and that conversation helped keep the movie alive long enough for a sequel to eventually make sense.
Click on the video below to hear Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman talk about how Practical Magic fans found one another over the years and built a community they could never have imagined when the original movie was released.
The Owens sisters were always the heart of Practical Magic
The witches and magic were obviously a huge part of the fun. But Practical Magic was never only about spells.
At its center were two sisters who could drive each other crazy, make wildly questionable decisions and still show up when the other one needed help. That relationship between Sally and Gillian gave Bullock and Kidman something much more grounded to play underneath all the supernatural chaos.
The movie also had something to say about women supporting one another, creating their own families and refusing to let the mistakes or expectations of earlier generations define them forever. Those ideas may be part of why the film grew with its audience instead of disappearing.
Practical Magic became a comfort movie
There is also another reason people keep going back to it. It is just a fun world to spend time in.
The house alone looks like somewhere you could stay forever. Add the small-town atmosphere, the music, the romance, the sisterhood and just enough darkness around the edges, and Practical Magic became one of those movies people revisit because of the way it feels.
For some fans, fall does not really begin until the Owens women are back on the screen. That kind of affection cannot always be measured by what happened during a movie’s original theatrical run.
Sometimes a film needs years to find its people. Practical Magic found them. And now those fans have helped bring the Owens sisters back.
Practical Magic 2 is now playing in theaters.
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