Does Disney Really Need to Make a ‘Hocus Pocus 3’?

Just in time for the spooky season, Bette Midler appeared on Watch What Happens Live with an update on Hocus Pocus 3. “They sent a script, and a lot of it was brilliant,” she said. “So I got very excited, and now we’re trying to figure out what it is and where it’s going to be and how much it’s going to cost and all those logistical things.”

From those few seconds of industry double-speak and non-specific information, trade publications such as Variety and Deadline spun full reports about the status of Hocus Pocus 3. The moment — and the Hocus Pocus franchise itself — offers a perfect snapshot of the creative doldrums of contemporary mainstream moviemaking: a cycle of anticipation and amnesia that rewards unoriginality.