Sources: Wikidata · OpenAlex. The record of the motion picture, not an assessment of this cell.
FILM NOTES
Hocus Pocus arrived from Walt Disney Pictures in the summer of 1993, a modest box office performer that found its true audience later through home video and annual Halloween broadcasts. Directed by Kenny Ortega, it blends slapstick comedy with genuine witchcraft lore, anchored by a trio of resurrected sisters terrorizing Salem. Over the following decades it became a seasonal staple, its songs and one liners entering the cultural vocabulary of October, and its cast, especially the Sanderson sisters, turned into enduring Halloween icons recognized well beyond the film's original theatrical run.
This cell holds Winifred Sanderson alone, the eldest and most commanding of the three sisters and the character most collectors seek out first. As the driving force of the story, her presence on film carries the weight of the picture's central conflict and comic energy. A single frame naming her isolates that authority, offering a piece tied directly to the character who leads every scheme, spell, and musical number the sisters undertake together.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print of Hocus Pocus (1993).
Gauge
35mm, confirmed by four perforations per frame on both visible edges; the strip holds three frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, cleanly punched with no torn or deformed holes visible.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area, appearing as a dual-stripe variable-area format; Dolby Digital data blocks are visible in the inter-perforation gaps on the same edge, indicating a composite optical/Dolby Digital soundtrack.
Edge print
Edge print reads reversed as 'S F E T' consistent with a safety-film edge code; full key numbers are not legible at this size.
Base & colour
Base shows a warm amber-gold tint typical of colour print stock; dye image appears well-saturated with no visible fading or red shift.
Projection history
Light vertical scratches are visible running through the frame area, consistent with a print that has passed through a projector gate.
Picture
Positive colour image; all three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single shot and the costume and setting are consistent with Hocus Pocus (1993).
Era check
The composite Dolby Digital plus variable-area optical soundtrack, amber-base colour print stock, and SAFETY edge coding are all consistent with a theatrical release print from the early-to-mid 1990s.
Read from the original intake capture shown below. Observations only — film is authenticated, not graded.
This original motion picture film element has been examined and authenticated by Crown Grading in partnership with National Film Vault, and encapsulated for archival preservation.
Why so little survivesRelease prints were leased to theaters, not sold. When the run ended they went back to the distributor to be destroyed, and most were. What collectors hold today came from the prints that escaped that order, and no new 35mm prints of these films are being struck.
CROWN SERIAL 000063354
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
