Hocus Pocus | Rotten Tomatoes (2024)

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What did Hocus Pocus 2 get on rotten tomatoes? ›

'Hocus Pocus 2' got a 2.9 star rating with one star reviews and five star reviews being at a tie. Top critics giving it a 67% rotten tomato rating.

While this might not have been considered method acting per se, one actor did commit to making sure the scene looked real. During the Hocus Pocus 25th Anniversary Halloween Bash, Sarah Jessica Parker revealed that she did eat a spider.

The follow-up film was directed by Anne Fletcher, with a screenplay by Jen D'Angelo and a story by Kirschner, Blake Harris, and D'Angelo. In an interview with The New York Times in June 2023, President of Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production Sean Bailey confirmed that Hocus Pocus 3 was happening.

Conveniently overlooking that the Sanderson Sisters actually exploded at the end of the first film, it ignores that fact and brings them back for the exact same story. But without the humour or the thrills. Or characters that we even care for. It's just bland and doesn't evoke any sense of nostalgia or fun.

Audience viewership

In October 2022, Disney+ reported Hocus Pocus 2 was the service's most-viewed film premiere in the United States, based on number of hours streamed in the first three days of its release. Disney later reported that Hocus Pocus 2 was the service's most-viewed film.

During her conversation with EW, Najimy also explained what made her come up with the crooked smile in the first place. "It's just something I came up with the first week," she said of shooting the first movie. "This is a big comedy, so you don't have to be subtle or have a 40-page Shakespearean backstory."

Hocus Pocus Used Real Bugs

Sarah Jessica Parker's Sarah eats a spider at one point in the movie, and Doug Jones' Billy Butcherson has moths fly out of his mouth. The 1993 audience might have been surprised to find out that those bugs were all real years later.

He put up with it until he is fed up with her obsession and fell in love with her youngest sister Sarah. Since being murdered and later resurrected by Winnifred, he enjoys hurling insults at her, which much to her chagrin.

Hocus Pocus bombed at the box office in 1993, but it has gained cult status today after popularity from home video releases and TV broadcasts.

Parents Need to Know

Like the original, the witchy sequel is family-friendly overall but does have magical violence, name-calling, and gross-out scenes, mostly involving a decapitated zombie.

Will Hocus Pocus 3 have the Sanderson sisters? ›

Disney confirmed in June that a third “Hocus Pocus” movie was in development. Now, screenwriter Jen D'Angelo has confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that the next Sanderson sisters tale is still in the story development phase following the end of the WGA strike.

The sequel was filmed in Rhode Island, while the original was shot in Salem. The sequel set an opening weekend streaming record with 2.7 billion minutes viewed, according to the Hollywood Reporter, and it was the fifth-most streamed movie of 2022.

Plot. On October 31, 1693, in Salem, Massachusetts, Thackery Binx discovers that his younger sister Emily has been whisked away to the woods by the three witches Winifred, Mary, and Sarah Sanderson.

Hocus Pocus is a multimedia franchise owned by Disney and created by David Kirschner and Mick Garris.

The sky-high streaming debut figures suggest that “Hocus Pocus 2” might have succeeded at the box office had it opened in theaters, grossed a halfway decent global cume and then debuted to almost-as-big streaming figures.

The film does a good job telling the story of sisterhood, but it lacked the magic and memorabilia that the original film had. While sequels are always hard to get right when the first film is cinematic gold, Hocus Pocus 2 failed miserably.

The film was released in North America on July 16, 1993, by Walt Disney Pictures. Upon its original release, it received mixed reviews from critics and was initially a box-office bomb, possibly losing Disney around $16.5 million during its theatrical run.

Audiences reportedly watched 2.73 billion minutes of the Anne Fletcher–directed film, which given its 103-minute runtime is the equivalent to it being viewed in full around 26 million times over its first three days of release.