Variosity Vault

Hocus Pocus is a 1993 American fantasy comedy film directed by Kenny Ortega from a screenplay by Mick Garris and Neil Cuthbert, and a story by David Kirschner and Garris. It follows a comically villainous trio of witches (Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy) who are inadvertently resurrected by a teenage boy (Omri Katz) in Salem, Massachusetts, on Halloween night. 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.