From nostalgia for the original movie to Jenna Ortega’s rising star power, there are many reasons whyBeetlejuice Beetlejuicehas performed so well at the box office. Released 36 years after the original movie,Beetlejuice Beetlejuicesees Tim Burton back in the director’s chair, Michael Keaton back in the role of Betelgeuse, Winona Ryder back in the role of Lydia Deetz, and Catherine O’Hara back in the role of her wicked stepmother Delia. Like many legacy sequels, it revolves around the next generation of characters as Lydia’s teenage daughter Astrid, played by Ortega, takes her own trip to the afterlife.
Since hitting theaters on September 6,Beetlejuice Beetlejuicehas been a massive box office hit. In its opening weekend, the sequel grossed a whopping $145.4 million worldwide, consisting of $110 million at the domestic box office and $35.4 million from international markets. This means thatBeetlejuice Beetlejuicehas nearly doubled the entire lifetime gross of the original movie in just three days. It’s the number-one movie in the world. But how did it become so successful? There are a few reasons whyBeetlejuice Beetlejuicehad such a huge opening weekend.
10A Lot Of People Have Nostalgia For The Original Beetlejuice
Beetlejuice Is One Of Tim Burton’s Most Iconic Films
Although it wasn’t a massive box office success on its initial release, the originalBeetlejuicehas become a beloved cult classic. As a family-friendly haunted house movie,Beetlejuiceis one of the first forays into the horror genre for many young movie fans, so it holds a special place in their hearts. Nostalgia is a great selling tool in today’s film industry; it’s the reason aBeetlejuicesequel exists in the first place.
Warner Bros. capitalized on this nostalgia cleverly in the marketing for the sequel. From Danny Elfman’s iconic theme to the famous lettering in the title logo to the recurring imagery of the model town in the Maitlands’ attic,theBeetlejuice Beetlejuicetrailerswere filled with familiar motifs from the original film. Anyone with a nostalgic love of the original film was guaranteed to buy a ticket for the sequel.
9Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Didn’t Have Much Competition At The Box Office
A Slow September Weekend At The Cinema
The biggest obstacle a movie can face at the box office is stiff competition from other movies. Last year, theHaunted Mansionreboot came and went without making a splash because Disney released it just one week after Barbenheimer, when audiences were still rushing out to seeBarbieandOppenheimer.Beetlejuice Beetlejuicedidn’t have this problem, because it was the only major release this past weekend. Recent releases likeBorderlandsandThe Crowhave crashed and burned.
The summer’s two biggest hits,Inside Out 2andDeadpool & Wolverine, are still going strong several weeks after their initial release, but neither of them is performing well enough to dethrone a newcomer.Alien: Romulushas had very good legs, but as an R-rated movie, it targets a slightly different demographic thanBeetlejuice Beetlejuice.Beetlejuice Beetlejuicefaced very little competition.
10 Biggest Unanswered Questions & Mysteries Beetlejuice 3 Must Solve
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice answered many questions from the first movie, but it also left a couple of big mysteries that only a third movie could solve.
8Jenna Ortega Is A Big Draw For Younger Viewers
Ortega Is Becoming One Of The Most Popular Actors In Hollywood
While there’s plenty of nostalgia for the originalBeetlejuice, it’s mostly among older viewers. A lot of younger viewers don’t watch movies from the 20th century. But even those viewers had a reason to check outBeetlejuice Beetlejuice, because Jenna Ortega is one of the biggest stars of Gen Z.Wednesdayis one of Netflix’s most popular showsand theScreamfilms have established Ortega as both a scream queen and a bona fide movie star.
Previous legacy sequels to ‘80s classics likeThe FlashandIndiana Jones and the Dial of Destinyhave underperformed, because they only catered to the older fan base of the original films and not to younger viewers. But by including Ortega in a major role,Beetlejuice Beetlejuiceappealed to that younger demographic. Those younger viewers showed up for Wednesday Addams.
The Trailers Got Audiences Hyped For The Movie
For the past few weeks, it’s been nearly impossible to go outside or go online and not see some kind of marketing forBeetlejuice Beetlejuice. The trailers have been plastered all over the internet, the posters have been plastered all over major cities, and the cast has been out doing plenty of interviews to promote the film. Warner Bros. created a lot of hype and awareness around this movie.
Recent films likeThe Fall GuyandFuriosa: A Mad Max Sagahave bombed at the box office, despite having A-list star power in the cast and popular I.P. in the title, because they’ve had subpar marketing campaigns. If studios want audiences to come out and see their movies, they need to know about them, so they need good marketing.Beetlejuice Beetlejuicehad that in spades.
6It’s The Perfect Time Of Year For A Spooky Movie
Tis The Season
While it’s not quite the Halloween season yet, the summer months are over and the fall months are underway. The days are getting shorter and darker, which puts audiences in a gloomier mood for a gloomier movie. Bright, colorful, action-packed blockbusters likeDeadpool & Wolverine,Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, andBad Boys: Ride or Diethrive in the summer. But in the fall, grimmer movies take over.
By arriving in early September,Beetlejuice Beetlejuicehas gotten ahead of the Halloween horror rush. In late October, it’ll have to compete with a bunch of new horror movies and even older horror movies getting re-released to coincide with Halloween. Now, by the timeSmile 2,Terrifier 3, andAzraelcome along,Beetlejuice Beetlejuicewill have been out for a few weeks and already made the bulk of its box office gross.
5Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Is An Unofficial Follow-Up To Wednesday
Wednesday Was A Massive Netflix Hit
Ortega’s presence isn’t the only reason whyWednesdayfans are showing up to watchBeetlejuice Beetlejuice; it’s the whole vibe that Burton and his writers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar bring to the table.Beetlejuice Beetlejuicefeels like a spiritual successor toWednesday. LikeWednesday, theBeetlejuicesequel combines a macabre horror story with a relatable teen drama. They threw in a romantic subplot in which Ortega’s character falls in love and lets her guard down as a parallel toWednesday.
And not only that, in the climactic musical number, Ortega does some unconventional dance moves that recallWednesday’s iconic dance sequence. Officially,Beetlejuice Beetlejuiceis a sequel toBeetlejuice. But unofficially, it’s just as much of a follow-up toWednesday. For fans ofWednesday, this movie makes the interminable three-year wait for season 2 a little easier.
4Winona Ryder & Catherine O’Hara’s TV Roles Have Made Them More Famous Than Ever
It’s Great To See Them On The Big Screen Again
While Ortega is the most current celebrity to appear intheBeetlejuice Beetlejuicecast, her co-stars are still relevant, too, thanks to their recent TV roles. Ryder was one of the biggest stars of the ‘90s, but she took a break from acting in the 2000s. If aBeetlejuicesequel had been made then, there wouldn’t be many contemporary moviegoers who knew about her. But in 2016, Ryder got a much-needed comeback with the role ofJoyce Byers inStranger Things.
O’Hara got a similar career renaissance with the fan-favorite role of Moira Rose inSchitt’s Creek. Her roles in Christopher Guest movies had already made her royalty to comedy nerds, butSchitt’s Creekmade O’Hara a globally recognizable icon.Stranger ThingsandSchitt’s Creekhave made Ryder and O’Hara more famous today than ever before.
Why Lydia Couldn’t See The Ghost Of Astrid’s Father In Beetlejuice 2
Lydia is capable of communicating with ghosts in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, yet she can’t seem to reach Astrid’s father. Here’s what we know.
Tim Burton Knows How To Do More With Less
One of the main reasons why a lot of last year’s tentpole movies disappointed at the box office, fromFast XtoIndiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, was that their budgets had ballooned to around $300 million. Going off the usual rule of thumb that movies need to make 2.5 times their budget to turn a profit, this put their break-even point at around $750 million. This meant that even movies with an impressive gross were considered failures.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuicecarries a more modest $100 million budget, so it doesn’t need to gross $750 million to break even – just $250 million will do the trick. If it had cost $300 million like a lot of recent blockbusters, then its $110 million opening weekend would be considered an underperformance. But since Warner Bros. didn’t overspend on it,Beetlejuice Beetlejuiceis well on its way to profitability.
2Audiences Are Starved For A Good Comedy
Are Movies Getting Less Funny?
For the past decade or so, the comedy movie genre has slowly died out. Most straightforward comedies have retreated to streaming, where the filmmakers are unburdened with selling tickets and, as a result, are much lazier. Studios are taking fewer and fewer risks on big-budget comedies for theatrical release, because comedies are a tough sell internationally. But despite what the market dictates, audiences still love going out to a movie theater and laughing along with a crowd at a good comedy.
The three biggest movies of the year –Inside Out 2,Deadpool & Wolverine, andDespicable Me 4– all have strong comedic elements. Like its predecessor,Beetlejuice Beetlejuiceis as much of a comedy as it is a horror movie. And like its predecessor, it plays really well to a big crowd at a theater.
1Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Has Received Positive Reviews
Both Critics & Audiences Seem To Love It
IfBeetlejuice Beetlejuicehad been panned by critics, it might’ve been a different story. But it’s a genuinely good movie, and the critical reception has reflected that. No one involved in this movie phoned it in for an easy payday; Burton pulls out all the cinematic stops to recapture the fun, creepy feel of the original, and Keaton, Ryder, and O’Hara all commit wholeheartedly to reprising their iconic roles. The critics picked up on that and responded enthusiastically to it.
The sequel has a “fresh” score of 76% on Rotten Tomatoes, indicating a mostly positive response from critics. It’s not quite as high as the original’s score of 83%, but it’s not far off, either. Anyone who was on the fence about checking outBeetlejuice Beetlejuicewill surely have been swayed by the positive reviews.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Cast
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is the sequel to the original Tim Burton classic that starred Michael Keaton and Wynona Rider in a horror-comedy that involved ghosts trying to scare off new homebuyers from taking their house. The sequel brings back Michael Keaton as the hilarious and sleazy ghost with selfish intentions, now joined by Jenna Ortega in a new role.
