Flops generally don’t tend to give rise to expensive sequels, especially after spending the better part of 30 years lodged firmly in the deepest and darkest recesses of development hell, which only serves to make Hocus Pocus 2 all the more fascinating when you consider the success it ended up finding.
While Disney’s Halloween-tinged comedy made the exact same mistake as Last Action Hero by trying to take on Jurassic Park and failing miserably in the summer of 1993, it didn’t prevent the supernatural romp from quickly evolving into not just a staple of annual viewing schedules everywhere right around spooky season, but a certifiable cult favorite that’s been enjoyed by multiple generations.
Speaking to Variety, producer and co-writer David Kirschner reflected on a journey that’s been so fruitful Hocus Pocus 3 is in active development after the second chapter became a global smash hit on Disney Plus.
“It bombed. It came out in the summer against the original Jurassic Park. It was a tearful weekend and I thought that was the end of it. As a feature film, it failed. But on television, it got a second life that was important enough for Disney to consider investing a good deal of money into a second film and everything else that has happened. I didn’t have the patience to assemble it on my own.”
It would be fair to say things worked out pretty well in the long run for the nascent Hocus Pocus franchise, then, even if there was a three-decade spell where it looked as though it would live forever a solely one-and-done classic.
