Mars Snacking is activating M&M'S as a theatrical tie-in partner for Practical Magic 2, releasing a limited-edition Amas Veritas Spell & Snack Pack in tandem with the Warner Bros. Pictures sequel's September 10, 2026 wide release — a move that positions the brand squarely at the front of the Halloween confectionery season.
The LTO Mechanics
The collectible pack is structured as a gift-with-purchase: consumers who buy an M&M'S Milk Chocolate Fun Size Sharing Bag on MMS.com/Practical-Magic receive the Amas Veritas pack while supplies last. Mars is running two scarcity-driven midnight drops — 12:00 AM ET on September 3 and again on September 14 — a format borrowed from streetwear and sneaker culture that has migrated into confectionery marketing over the past several years. The packaging features 12 custom-designed candy symbols: eight drawn from the "Amas Veritas" love charm scene in the 1998 original film, and four new symbols intended as teases for the sequel's storyline.
The direct-to-consumer drop structure keeps the activation off retail shelves entirely, funneling demand through the brand's own e-commerce channel and generating first-party consumer data — a priority for large CPG manufacturers navigating tighter retailer trade-spend environments.
Halloween Seasonal Context
For foodservice and convenience operators, the broader Mars Halloween lineup — including M&M'S Milk Chocolate, Peanut, and Peanut Butter Fun Size Halloween Candy Variety Packs and two Halloween Blend SKUs in orange-and-black shells — remains widely available at retail nationwide. Halloween is the single largest seasonal confectionery occasion in the U.S. market, and Mars, Incorporated — now a $65 billion-plus family-owned business following its Kellanova integration — holds significant share across the treat-size segment that drives impulse and bulk purchasing at c-stores, club channels, and mass retailers in August through October.
Allison Miazga-Bedrick, VP Marketing, Seasonal Portfolio, Mars Snacking, framed the activation around bringing fans together: "This partnership gives Practical Magic fans a nostalgic, colorful and spellbinding way to make their movie night even more memorable."
To support the campaign, Mars partnered with actress Camilla Belle — who played young Sally Owens in the 1998 film — to recreate the "Amas Veritas" scene with M&M'S branding integrated, distributing the content across Instagram and TikTok. Celebrity co-marketing of this type has become a reliable awareness amplifier for seasonal LTOs, reducing paid-media dependency while generating earned impressions in the weeks leading into a film's opening weekend.
Operator and Buyer Takeaway
For c-store and foodservice buyers, the theatrical peg gives M&M'S a promotional news hook through mid-September, bridging the late-summer slowdown into peak Halloween sell-through. The LTO itself is DTC-exclusive, so it does not directly affect retail planogram decisions, but the elevated brand awareness generated by the campaign typically lifts base SKU velocity during the promotional window — a pattern well-documented in confectionery seasonal marketing data.
Brands in the better-for-you snack segment have increasingly challenged legacy candy players for Halloween shelf space at grocery and club, making high-visibility entertainment co-branding a defensive tactic as much as an offensive one. Mars's pairing of a nostalgia-driven IP with a sequel release — which brings an established fan base into theaters — mirrors similar playbooks executed around major franchise tentpoles in recent years. Operators stocking Halloween candy assortments should expect M&M'S consumer demand to track the theatrical marketing curve through the September 10 opening weekend and into October's peak trick-or-treat buying window. For more on seasonal confectionery assortment strategy, see our recent coverage of Halloween candy category trends.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
