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 release that found its true audience years later through repeated television airings and a devoted Halloween following. Directed by Kenny Ortega and led by Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy as the Sanderson sisters, the film blended slapstick comedy with genuine witchcraft atmosphere. It underperformed at the box office but grew into an enduring seasonal touchstone, prized now for its cast and its specific, unrepeatable sense of time and place within early nineties family filmmaking.
This cell preserves the opening title card, the frame where the film first announces itself before story or character take hold. Such cards are collected for their role as threshold moments, the handshake between studio and audience that sets tone before a single scene unfolds. For a picture like this one, tied so closely to a single night of the year and to its return each autumn, the title card carries outsized meaning. It is the moment of anticipation itself, unattached to any performance, holding only the promise of what follows.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print of Hocus Pocus (1993)
Gauge
35mm, four perforations per frame on both edges; the strip holds three frames
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, cleanly punched with no visible torn or deformed holes
Soundtrack
Variable-area optical track visible on one edge with what appears to be Dolby Digital data blocks present in the perforation-gap area, consistent with a mid-1990s release print format
Edge print
Text along the base edge reads 'EASTMAN 5' and '141', consistent with Eastman color print stock coding
Base & colour
Clear base with a slight amber cast at one edge; dye image is vivid with no apparent colour shift or fading
Projection history
None visible in this capture
Picture
Positive print; three consecutive frames each showing the Hocus Pocus title card, matching the film on record
Era check
The Eastman print stock, dual variable-area optical track, and Dolby Digital inter-perforation data blocks are all consistent with a 1993 theatrical release print era
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 000063369
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
