‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ Aims to Clear $100 Million in Scary-Good Opening Weekend
The ghost with the most is looking to inject a little life into the sluggish box office.
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” the sequel to Tim Burton’s 1988 film about a pesky poltergeist, is eyeing a huge $100 million to $110 million opening weekend. Based on those estimated ticket sales, the follow-up film could land among 2017’s “It” ($123 million debut) and 2019’s “It: Chapter 2” ($91 million) as one of the biggest September debuts of all time.
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Warner Bros, the distributor of “Beetlejuice 2,” is projecting a more conservative $80 million to start. Anything north of $80 million would be scary-good given the film’s $100 million production budget.
Box office analysts and exhibitors expect that nostalgia for the original, as well as word-of-mouth for the sequel, should propel initial ticket sales into triple digit territory. Burton returned to direct and brought with him Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice, Winona Ryder as Lydia Deetz and Catherine O’Hara as step-mom Delia Deetz. “Wednesday” favorite Jenna Ortega, Monica Bellucci and Steve Buscemi joined the cast. Variety’s chief film critic Owen Gleiberman wrote that “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” doesn’t “give you the full monster-kitsch jolt that the original film had.” But, he continues, “there’s good fan service and bad, and as stilted and gimcrackery as it can sometimes be, I had a pretty good time.”
The first “Beetlejuice” became a critical and commercial hit, grossing $74.7 million and inspiring a Tony-nominated Broadway musical. The story follows a devious ghost from the Netherworld who helps a recently deceased couple haunt the new inhabitants of their former home. The sequel is set 36 years later as the daughter of Lydia Deetz (whose family was the subject of the terror in the original) discovers the portal to the Afterlife and accidentally releases everyone’s favorite bio-exorcist spirit.
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” is this weekend’s only new release, so whether or not audiences say its name three times, the film will tower over domestic box office charts. The horror-comedy will supplant Disney’s Marvel sequel “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which has claimed the No. 1 spot for five out of the past six weekends on its way to grossing $603 million domestically and $1.26 million globally.
Despite mega hits like “Inside Out 2,” “Deadpool & Wolverine” and “Despicable Me 4,” summer at the box office ended with domestic revenues down 14.3% from 2023, according to Comscore. “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” looks to jolt the fall season, which hopes to continue with Paramount’s animated “Transformers One” (Sept. 20), Universal and DreamWorks Animation’s “The Wild Robot” (Sept. 27), Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga’s “Joker: Folie à Deux” (Oct. 4), Sony’s comic book three-quel “Venom: The Last Dance” (Oct. 25) and Paramount’s gruesome horror spinoff “Smile 2” (Oct. 18).
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