Hocus Pocus is, hands down, one of the most popular Halloween movies ever. Because it’s almost Halloween and because we absolutely love this movie, here are a few fun facts about Hocus Pocus!
This past July marked the 20th anniversary of Hocus Pocus, which means we’ve been able to enjoy the adventures of the Sandersons and the Salem youths every Halloween for over two decades. Can you believe it? For a lot of us, that’s the majority of our relatively short lives!
But, after 20 years of enjoying Hocus Pocus, how much do you actually know about it? While we consider ourselves super Hocus Pocus aficionados, we have to admit that we definitely aren’t experts on the movie, its flaws, or even the process that went into making it.
In the spirit of Halloween and the movie’s 20th anniversary, here are thirteen fun facts you may or may not have known about Hocus Pocus.
1. In July 1993, ‘Hocus Pocus’ made only about $40 million at the box office on a $28 million dollar budget.
While that isn’t a fantastic box office run, don’t feel bad for Hocus Pocus just yet. With TV syndication and video/DVD sales, the movie makes more and more every year. Like a few other Halloween movies from the ’90s, Hocus Pocus has become a popular cult favorite (if not the most popular).
2. Leonardo DiCaprio was originally supposed to portray Max Dennison, but he turned down the opportunity to star in ‘What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.’
Does this really surprise you? Leonardo DiCaprio’s bad luck strikes again. No, this movie probably would not have gotten him an Oscar nomination (or any other large scale award), but it would have at least meant he would have another fan-favorite movie under his belt. Besides, we’re pretty sure that there isn’t a movie star alive who didn’t wish they had been in Hocus Pocus.
3. There are a few scenes in a trailer for the movie that have never shown up in any version of the movie, whether it be on TV or VHS/DVD.
Hocus Pocus enthusiasts (and even habitual or occasional viewers) will notice the missing scenes right away in the short trailer above. We don’t know about you, but we would love to see the Sanderson sisters hit up a grocery store. Those few seconds with Mary and some sort of condiment look like they would have been super entertaining as an entire scene. You would think that these fun scenes would have ended up on a DVD at some point. They clearly have the footage somewhere, so it’s not like they trashed it or it never existed. Oh well, hopefully we’ll see it one day. 25th anniversary maybe?
4. ‘Hocus Pocus’ is the only movie that Kenny Ortega has ever directed without also doing the choreography.
Kenny Ortega is probably best-known for his work on High School Musical. Could you imagine if Ortega had done some sort of choreography for Hocus Pocus? Yes, it would be kind of funny to see the Sanderson sisters sing and dance in sync to some ridiculous song. However, we can only imagine what kind of song would be sung about the fact that the black candle had to be lit by a virgin. It would most likely make our skin crawl.
5. The Sanderson sisters were supposedly hanged on October 31, 1693. However, the Salem witch trials ended in May 1693.
Yes, this is less of a fun fact and more of a movie flaw or inaccuracy. But it’s still kind of interesting, isn’t it? We understand why they’d choose 1693 as the year. After all, the movie came out in 1993 and it just sounds better to remember or celebrate the Sanderson sisters’ hanging if it was 300 years ago instead of 301. At least this isn’t a gaping flaw. We didn’t notice it ourselves until we did a bit of research.
6. Sean Murray, the actor who played Thackery Binx, did not provide the voice for Binx the cat.
Binx was voiced by another actor named Jason Marsden (no, no relation to James Marsden unfortunately). Our question is who wouldn’t want NCIS‘s Tim McGee to voice a main character in a movie? He’s just so adorable and definitely has a voice to match. We just don’t understand why Sean Murray wasn’t asked to voice Binx the cat. While he isn’t a voice actor like Jason Marsden, we would have liked the continuity. Although, we didn’t really notice he wasn’t the voice until recently…
Continue on to the next page for some more fun Hocus Pocus trivia.
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