'Spider-Man: Brand New Day' is $1.4 million from rewriting movie history, and a 28-year-old witch movie just handed it the perfect sendoff
'Practical Magic 2' finally dethroned Tom Holland's Spider-Man after six consecutive weeks at number one, and now the film it beat is about to become the highest-grossing movie ever at the North American box office.
In brief
'Spider-Man: Brand New Day' is $1.4 million from movie history, and a 28-year-old witch movie just handed it the perfect sendoff
Two things happened at the box office this past weekend that, separately, would each be a pretty good story. Together, they're genuinely hard to explain without sounding like you're making it up.
According to Variety, Practical Magic 2 opened Friday to $13 million at 4,146 North American screens and landed at number one for the weekend with $30 million. That knocked Spider-Man: Brand New Day off its six-week streak at the top of the domestic chart, falling to Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman's mystical sequel. Fine. But here is where it gets surreal.
'Spider-Man: Brand New Day' is on the cusp of breaking the record for highest-grossing film at the domestic box office of all time after pulling in another $8.4 million over the weekend. The Sony-distributed film now holds a domestic haul of $935.2 million, only about $1.4 million short of the all-time record for highest-grossing film in North America, set by 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' in 2015 with a $936.6 million lifetime gross.
Despite losing the number-one spot, Brand New Day broke another record, undoubtedly the biggest of its remarkable run. This weekend the movie generated around $9 million at the domestic box office, taking its running total to $935 million, and on Monday it is expected to become the highest-grossing movie in domestic box office history. Analysts expect Sony to keep the film in theaters as it pursues an unprecedented $1 billion in unadjusted domestic ticket sales.
Think about the timeline. The film secured the biggest domestic debut in box office history with $360 million, as well as the second-largest global debut of all time with $932 million. It swung past the $900 million mark domestically in 36 days, compared with The Force Awakens' 50 days. And now, in its seventh weekend, after being dethroned by witches, it's about to own the biggest domestic run any movie has ever produced.
Globally, Brand New Day still sits behind 'Avengers: Endgame,' which grossed $2.8 billion in 2019, and 'Avatar,' which grossed $2.9 billion. But with $2.4 billion worldwide so far, it is among the five highest-grossing films in history and by far the biggest movie of 2026.
On the other side of this weekend: a cult film from 1998 resurfaces
The movie that finally ended Spidey's run has its own wild backstory. The original Practical Magic bombed in 1998, opening to just $13 million against a budget of $75 million and reaching only $94 million worldwide, before achieving cult classic status after its home video release. The franchise built its following on cable, home video, and eventually a marathon streaming run on HBO Max, which is presumably what convinced Warner Bros. to greenlight a sequel nearly three decades later.
Earning a B+ CinemaScore from audiences, Practical Magic 2 opened to around $30 million domestically, directed by Susanne Bier and launching in over 4,000 North American locations on a $75 million production budget. The sequel stars Bullock and Kidman reprising their original roles, alongside newer cast members Joey King, Lee Pace, and Maisie Williams.
The opening is now Nicole Kidman's top debut as a lead or co-lead. Her previous high was $22.8 million for 2005's The Interpreter with Sean Penn. For Warner Bros., the timing mattered beyond the numbers. The studio reportedly entered September without a single 2026 release past $100 million domestic, its first time in that position in a quarter-century outside the pandemic, so a number-one opening carries more weight than the raw figure suggests.
The year-to-date domestic total for 2026 now stands at $7.5 billion after a hot summer, marking a 19 percent improvement over this point last year. So the industry, broadly, is having a very good year, and this particular weekend, strange as it is, fits.
Why people are actually talking about this
The conversation around Brand New Day has been building all summer, but Monday's expected crossing of The Force Awakens' long-standing record feels different. That Star Wars benchmark has held for eleven years. It stood through Endgame, through No Way Home, through Avatar's re-releases. Given the gap between films at this level, it looks like Spidey will hold on to this record for quite some time.
On social media, the double-storyline weekend kept fans of both properties energized. Practical Magic fans, many of whom have watched the original every Halloween for two decades, are treating this sequel as something closer to a cultural event than a sequel. Spider-Man fans, meanwhile, are tracking the daily grosses the way sports fans track standings in a tight playoff race. The film opened to excellent reviews and has settled at a 90% critics' score and a 97% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
This marks the first frame without Spider-Man: Brand New Day in the top spot since its July 31 release, after the Tom Holland film led the domestic box office for the past six consecutive weekends. The Odyssey, Christopher Nolan's ancient epic, is also quietly having its own moment: it passed the $600 million mark domestically and became the highest-grossing Universal release in global box-office history, beating Jurassic World's record.
That's three box office records in a single weekend. Weird fall for a movie theater to be open, in the best possible way. The all-time domestic crown flips sometime this week, probably midweek, probably without a ceremony. Just a number on a spreadsheet that nobody who was alive in 1977 thought would ever get there.
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CAN I KICK IT? screens New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument, on Aug. 22. (Courtesy SHAOLIN JAZZ)
The live-cinema series CAN I KICK IT? returns to the National Mall this month with what its producers are calling the "Gangsters on the Mall" chapter of their free outdoor summer run. On Saturday, August 22, the SHAOLIN JAZZ production brings the 1991 crime classic New Jack City to the Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument for a night of film, music, and community under the DC summer sky.
What sets the event apart is the sound. As the film plays, DJ 2-Tone Jones builds an original score in real time, reimagining one of the most iconic crime movies of the ’90s through hip-hop, soul, funk, and more. It is less a movie screening than a live performance built around the film.
The details:
Film: New Jack City (1991), with a live soundtrack by DJ 2-Tone Jones
When: Saturday, August 22 — seating opens at 7:30 p.m. (bring lawn chairs and blankets); film begins at 8:30 p.m.
Where: Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument, Independence Ave SW & 15th St NW
A parking note from the organizers: expect road closures and restricted parking east of 14th Street NW due to a separate race event in the District. Roads west of 14th Street NW will be accessible and available for parking.
New Jack City is the second of three screenings in this year’s free CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series, which opened with Black Panther at Skyland Town Center and concludes with Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial on September 5. Produced by the Washington, DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, the series has presented more than 150 live cinematic experiences at venues across the country, from Lincoln Center to SXSW.
"I wanted to be able to tell good stories with substance and remove the ‘ego’ out of the art," said Andrew Huang during a recent interview. Now, he’s building his career at the intersection of discipline, creativity and innovation.
Andrew Huang, founder of New Place Studios. (Courtesy photo)
As a Chinese American, Huang was reared with a deep respect for hard work, consistency and excellence. He describes his childhood as "not so affluent" and later attended college to hone his passion for videography. "In college I tried to do something I loved, which was video, but along the way I knew that I had to find a job. And so I thought, ‘what was the low hanging fruit to get to that stable 9 to 5 job?,’" he stated.
Later in life, Huang found himself working for corporations where his creativity was often limited, eventually leading to burnout. "I worked in a corporation for a long time and there were a lot of missing pieces. I wanted to fill in gaps missing in corporate video production," said Huang.
He later described how his upbringing and a mindset of "survival" led him toward a corporate career. However, his desire for balance and authentic storytelling ultimately pushed him to take the entrepreneurial leap.
"I founded a new place where you can create video and film with ‘substance and style,’" said Huang. His desire for work-life balance and passion for storytelling naturally evolved into a small business based in Virginia. With the launch of New Place Studios, the entrepreneur quickly found himself reconnecting with the values that would become the foundation of everything he creates behind the camera.
Huang said being a business owner has allowed him to first embrace himself. While others may see video as simply capturing moments, he sees it as a way to preserve stories that inspire, connect and leave a lasting imprint.
By combining cinematic visuals with cutting-edge production techniques and a keen understanding of branding, Huang helps organizations and individuals communicate their vision with purpose. He said understanding a client’s "why" serves as the compass for delivering the services they need.
One benefit of working with a small business, he said, is that clients get to see the production process unfold through a micro lens while working with the same faces throughout the entire project. "The work feels personal," said Huang.
Huang does not regret leaving behind the flash-over-substance mentality and corporate hustle culture. That does not mean the Asian American entrepreneur has been without challenges in the industry. "It’s relatively hard to find other Asian American creatives or people who would want to work with me in the DMV," said Huang.
He identifies the industry culture in which everyone is trying to blend in, creatives may fear displaying their Asian identity and some feel pressure to adopt an American corporate persona. He also points to what he describes as a level of gatekeeping within the industry. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2024 statistics, Asian American and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs own more than 3 million businesses and employ 5.2 million people in the United States.
After tapping into organizations such as SCORE, which offers free small business mentorship, New Place Studios has become a trusted creative partner throughout the DMV (Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia). The company produces a range of creative services, including commercials, corporate branding, documentaries, film, 2D animation, motion graphics and photography.
For Huang, entrepreneurship has become more than a departure from corporate life. It has given him the freedom to create with intention, build meaningful connections and tell stories that go beyond the surface.
The 2026 CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
For three Saturdays this summer, some of Washington’s most familiar public spaces will do something they rarely do after dark: fill up with blankets, lawn chairs, and the sound of a movie being scored live, in real time. CAN I KICK IT?, the traveling “live cinema” series produced by the DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, is bringing a free outdoor run to the city — pairing three era-defining films with an original soundtrack performed on the spot by DJ 2-Tone Jones.
The premise is what sets it apart from a normal screening in the park. Rather than simply pressing play, 2-Tone Jones builds a score as the film unfolds, pulling from hip-hop, soul, funk, jazz, rock, electronic music, and sounds from around the world. The result, the organizers say, is less a movie night than a one-time performance — the same film you know, wired to a soundtrack you have never heard and will not hear again. Guest DJs warm up the crowd starting at 7:30 PM before each 8:30 PM screening.
The 2026 outdoor schedule
All three events are free and open to the public.
Saturday, August 8 — Black Panther at Skyland Town Center. A pop-up marketplace and community activities kick off the evening; guest DJs at 7:30 PM, film at 8:30 PM. Marvel’s superhero epic gets a one-night-only live score in Southeast DC.
Saturday, August 22 — New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument. Seating begins at 7:30 PM; the film starts at 8:30 PM. The 1991 crime drama plays out at the foot of one of the country’s most recognizable landmarks.
Saturday, September 5 — Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial. Seating at 7:30 PM; film at 8:30 PM. The series closes with Brian De Palma’s crime saga against the backdrop of the Memorial, scored live from start to finish.
First up: Black Panther at Skyland Town Center on August 8. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
A DC company with a national footprint
SHAOLIN JAZZ describes itself as a Washington-based arts company working at the intersection of music, film, art, and culture, and CAN I KICK IT? is its signature production. According to the organizers, the series has staged more than 150 live cinematic experiences around the country — at performing arts centers, museums, festivals, and cultural institutions including Lincoln Center in New York, SXSW, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Republic Square in Austin, the Tacoma Armory, and The Cary Theater.
“CAN I KICK IT? has always been about creating a shared experience,” said Gerald Watson, co-founder of SHAOLIN JAZZ. “When you combine iconic films with live music in public spaces, something special happens. People aren’t just watching a movie — they’re experiencing it together. That’s what makes these nights so memorable.”
Cinema as a community event
The DC run lands as cities across the country look for new ways to activate public space through arts and culture — and this series is a straightforward pitch for how to do it: take a landmark everyone already knows, add a film everyone has an opinion about, and let a live soundtrack turn the evening into something neighbors experience shoulder to shoulder. Families, film buffs, and music fans are all invited, and admission won’t cost a thing.
The CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series runs August 8, August 22, and September 5. All events are free; check SHAOLIN JAZZ (shaolinjazz.com) for the latest details and any weather updates before heading out.
