16 Fun Facts You Might Not Know About Hocus Pocus
We are about everything Halloween right now because it’s October, of course! You can’t talk about Halloween and Disney without talking about the film Hocus Pocus, so let’s look at some fun facts about this 1993 cult classic.
1. Kenny Ortega
Hocus Pocus was directed by Kenny Ortega, the director behind High School Musical and The Cheetah Girls.
2. Silver Anniversary
Hocus Pocus is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.
3. Halloween in July?
This Halloween movie was actually released in the hot July month.
4. Star-studded Cast
The movie stars the legendary Bette Midler, as well as Kathy Najimy and Sarah Jessica Parker as the Sanderson sisters who absorb the youth of Emily Binx. Her brother, Thackery, confronts them and the witches turn him into a black cat. The witches are caught and Thackery tries to guard them so they aren’t released. Well, you know what’s coming next.
5. Sister Act
Kathy Najimy got her breakthrough as “Sister Mary Patrick” in Sister Act (1992).
6. Bette Midler
Singer and actress Bette Midler, also a Golden Globe nominee and starred in Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), Ruthless People (1986), Outrageous Fortune (1987), Big Business (1988), Beaches (1988), Hocus Pocus (1993), The First Wives Club (1996), The Stepford Wives (2004), and Parental Guidance (2012). She also starred in For the Boys (1991) and Gypsy (1993).
7. The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow
Sarah Jessica Parker made her mark n Broadway in Annie and also appeared in Footloose and Firstborn, and L.A. Story (1991), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Hocus Pocus (1993), Ed Wood (1994), The First Wives Club (1996), The Family Stone (2005), Failure to Launch (2006), and Did You Hear About the Morgans? (2009).
8. Wait. What?
Did you know that Leonardo DiCaprio was once offered the role of Max, but turned it down because he was working on What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?
9. Behind the Magic
The documentary, Hocus Pocus: Begin the Magic, tells the behind-the scenes about the Hocus Pocus movie. Producer David Kirschner told the story about how he came up with the idea for the movie. It was when he was sitting with his daughter and saw a black cat. He told his daughter the story about how the cat was once a boy who was changed into a feline.
10. Did You Know?
Hocus Pocus was released in July so that it wouldn’t compete with “The Nightmare Before Christmas.”
11. Can’t Wait!
The movie is being released again this year so check your local movie listings so you can check it out again (or for the first time!).
12. The Sequel is Coming
Bette Midler is committed to the first Hocus Pocus but doesn’t want to see the a sequel made. There will be a sequel, but it will not include any of the original cast.Talk about nine lives — nine cats played Thackery!
13. Nine Lives
Talk about nine lives — nine cats played Thackery!
14. I Want to Go!
Middletown, Ohio has an annual Hocus Pocus festival every October.
15. That’s a lot of Dough
The Hocus Pocus movie grossed a whopping $39,514,713 back in 1993. However, it wasn’t an immediate hit back then. It took some time to build an audience.
16. Billy Butcherson
Hocus Pocus was Doug Jones’ sixth screen credit and he has gone to work on Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water.”