Halloween

The Sanderson Sisters, Mary, Winifred, and Sarah, sing "I Put A Spell On You."
Disney+

All The Nights Hocus Pocus Airs On TV In October 2022

You’ve got lots of options so get ready for the Sanderson Sistaaaahs!

by Jamie Kenney

The month of October means a few things: sweater weather, spooky decorations, all things pumpkin spice and, of course, watching Hocus Pocus as many times as possible. (Pro-tip: if your kids inevitably ask what a virgin is, tell them it’s an inexperienced person. You’re welcome.) But how can you watch Hocus Pocus on TV? When is Hocus Pocus airing in October 2022? Let us take thee into a land of enchantment and all the details...

Hocus Pocus will air 13 times (naturally) on Freeform’s “31 Nights Of Halloween.”

For good old fashioned tuning in, Freeform — the cable network focused on coming-of-age programming — is your go-to channel. As part of its “31 Nights of Halloween” (more on that in a minute) you’ll have plenty of opportunities to catch the Sanderson Sisters throughout the month of October starting right away. The network also seems to have taken little one’s bedtimes (as well as the Millennial urge to watch the movie after the kids have gone to bed) into account.

The scheduled airings are as follows...

Saturday, Oct. 1 @ 7:15 p.m.

Sunday, Oct. 2 @ 8:35 p.m.

Tuesday, Oct. 4 @ 9 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 8 @ 7:10 p.m.

Sunday, Oct. 9 @ 4:45 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 15 @ 5:30 p.m.

Sunday, Oct. 16 @ 7:40 p.m.

Monday, Oct. 17 @ 8:50 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 22 @ 9:20 p.m.

Sunday, Oct. 23 @ 5:15 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 29 @ 9:25 p.m.

Sunday, Oct. 30 @ 7:05 p.m.

And, of course, you can watch one last time on Halloween night (when the moon is round), Monday, Oct. 31 at 9 p.m.

You also have several streaming and purchasing options to watch Hocus Pocus.

Streaming, DVD, and TV: there are lots of ways to watch Hocus Pocus this year.Disney+

If, for some reason, none of those many times and dates don’t work for you, #1 you need to slow down because you’re clearly overextending yourself and #2 fear not, for this is 2022 and we have streaming options.

Disney+ subscribers can catch Hocus Pocus any time of the year, as well as the highly anticipated sequel Hocus Pocus 2, premiering Sept. 30. Amazon Prime subscribers can rent the movie for $3.99 or buy it digitally for $19.99. Not a Disney+ or Amazon Prime subscriber? You can also buy or rent the movie on Vudu.

You can also buy the DVD (probably not a bad idea since, let’s face it: you’ll be watching this every Halloween for the rest of your life) you can nab a copy for as little as $5.

Other Halloween classics for children of all ages are also on Freeform.

Tim Burton spooky animated features are also included in the “31 Nights Of Halloween.”Disney+

In addition to Hocus Pocus, you’ll find lots of other Halloween movies for families on the “31 Nights of Halloween” line-up, including The Witches, Hotel Transylvania, Maleficent, Halloweentown, Tim Burton classics The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride and many more.

However, this is Halloween, the spookiest time of the year. It’s not all just kiddie movies. (Though we challenge anyone to name a scarier horror movie monster than The Grand High Witch in what is allegedly a children’s movie...) Grown-up favorites like Get Out, A Quiet Place, Ghostbusters and more will also be available on the network. (You can find their full offerings here.)

Hocus Pocus was, somehow, a box office flop.

Like a fine wine, Hocus Pocus had to breathe a little bit before the public could truly appreciate it.‌Disney+

While the film is now an undisputed classic (I think we’ve even moved past designating it as a “cult classic” because, well, the cult is pretty huge), when Hocus Pocus premiered in July 1993 (inauspiciously the same day as mega-hit Free Willy) it did not receive the warm welcome you might have expected. Unimpressive box office returns coupled with negative reviews (Gene Siskel declared it “ dreadful witches' comedy” with “nothing funny to say.” Roger Ebert gave it a mere one star. Honestly, it really sounds like everyone just felt it was beneath them to bother to even try to like it.)

But, like everyone’s other favorite holiday movie, It’s A Wonderful Life, the film really hit its stride in cable airings (particularly on the Disney Channel) and in VHS and DVD sales (where it still tops charts). When rereleased in theaters (mostly drive-ins), it raked in $4.8 million, making it the most successful box office rerelease that year (it even beat The Empire Strikes Back).

We could not be happier that the world is discovering what some Millennial women (*casually breathes on knuckles*) have known all along: this movie is campy good fun and we can’t wait to watch it throughout October.