Tim Burton’s long-awaited sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is off to a rip-roaring start at the domestic box office as if no time had passed between now and when the first film graced the big screen 36 years ago.
From Warner Bros., the first event pic of the fall season opened to a monstrous $110 million, coming in on the high end of expectations. Whether it can successfully revive the franchises will depend on its stayig power, as well as its overseas numbers. (Foreign number weren’t immediately available.)
The campy comedy-horror movie delivered the second-biggest September opening of all time behind fellow Warners’ 2017 R-rated Stephen King adaptation It ($123 million), not adjusted for inflation.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice sees the return of Michael Keaton as the titular ghoulish prankster, alongside Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara. Franchise newcomers include Jenna Ortega, Justin Theroux, Monica Bellucci, Arthur Conti and Willem Dafoe. This time around, Lydia Deetz (Ryder) and her family return home after a tragedy only to find that her daughter, Astrid (Ortega), has opened a portal to the afterlife. (The teaser trailer appropriately features Keaton declaring to an astonished Ryder, “The Juice is loose.”)
The movie is winning over all age groups and families, a testament to the first film’s cult classic status. It’s skewing female by anywhere from 54 percent to 58 percent and is playing well in all parts of the country. More than a third of the gross is coming from Imax and other large-format screens. Another boost: Hispanic consumers, who are the most frequent moviegoers.
The sequel received a B+ CinemaScore, on par with a fresh Rotten Tomatoes critics score of 76 percent and a notch up from the B CinemaScore given to the original Beetlejuice. (It isn’t uncommon for horror films or titles with horror elements to land lower CinemaScore grades.)
“Tapping into the maniacally playful spirit of one of his enduring golden-era hits, the director seems reinvigorated. He serves up comparable tonic as well for two actors who were a big part not just of the original Beetlejuice but also of Burton’s Batman movies and Edward Scissorhands: Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder, respectively,” writes The Hollywood Reporter chief film critic David Rooney in his review.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice eclipsed the previous second-biggest September opening of all time, 2019’s It Chapter Two ($91.1 million), followed by Marvel Studios’ Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings ($75.4 million), which was released during the pandemic in 2021. After that, the next biggest September opening is in the mid-$50 million range.
The sequel cost a reported $100 million to make before a major marketing spend that included staging the movie’s world premiere at the glitzy Venice Film Festival.
Burton directed the sequel from a script by Wednesday showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, with Seth Grahame-Smith credited for his work on the film’s story.
The first Beetlejuice grossed $74 million at the domestic box office — a huge sum at the time — or more than $195 million when adjusted for inflation.
No other major studio film dared open opposite Beetlejuice 2, which is playing in 4,575 locations. The only other new wide offering is indie distributor A24’s psychological horror pic The Front Room failing to find its groove, opening in tenth place with $1.7 million. If there was any solace, its that traffic was better than expected on Saturday, when it looked like the film might only open to $1.4 million.
Back at the top of the chart, Deadpool & Wolverine placed No. 2 in its seventh weekend with $7.2 million domestically for a global cume of $1.257 million. The indie Ronald Reagan biopic Reagan followed in third place with a solid $5.2 million for a 10-day domestic cume of $18.5 million and Alien: Romulus with $4 million for hefty global total of $314.4 million, the best showing for fhe franchise behind Prometheus. It Ends With Us rounded out the top five as it leapt pas the $300 million globally.
Disney became the first Hollywood studio of 2024 to gross $4 billion in global ticket sales, thanks to billion-dollar babies Inside Out 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine. Alien: Romulus, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes also prospered, among other titles.
More to come.
Sept. 8, 7:15 a.m. Updated with revised estimates.
This story was originally published Sept. 7 at 9:14 a.m.
