‘Beetlejuice 2’ Is Going From Nostalgic Success to Blockbuster Hit, and Jenna Ortega Is a Big Reason Why

There won’t be any worry of a slow start to the fall box office the way there was at the start of the summer season back in May, and that’s thanks to Warner Bros.’ “ Beetlejuice Beetlejuice ,” which is on its way to earning one of the strongest opening weekends of the year.

Carrying a reported $150 million production budget, Tim Burton’s sequel to his 1988 classic horror comedy looked on paper to have a modestly successful box office run several months ago, supported from its post-Labor Day release spot by nostalgic Gen Xers and elder Millennials and perhaps their teenage children.

Instead, sources at both Warner Bros. and movie theaters tell TheWrap that they are seeing robust interest and advance ticket sales across all regions of the U.S. and across demographics. Warner Bros. is currently setting its projections at a relatively conservative $80 million-plus, which would be a very good result similar to the $82.5 million start of “Dune: Part Two” this past March.

But independent trackers and rival distributors are putting their projections for “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” at $100 million. If it clears that mark, it will join “Inside Out 2” and “Deadpool & Wolverine” as the third film to do so this year and will stand as the first non-Disney release to reach a nine-digit opening since the Warner Bros.-record $162 million opening of “Barbie” in July 2023.

Either result would continue a 2024 that has been full of high peaks and deep valleys for Warner Bros., as “Beetlejuice 2” arrives after a very muted summer for the studio.

Warner’s big tentpole play, “Furiosa,” couldn’t bring in many moviegoers beyond the hardcore “Mad Max” fans despite strong reception, grossing just $172.7 million worldwide against a reported $168 million budget. A group of auteur-driven films that were distribution-only for Warner didn’t bring many out to theaters either, as the first part of Kevin Costner’s “Horizon: An American Saga” grossed only $29 million in the U.S., leading Warner to indefinitely delay the release of the next installment in the hopes of building interest by releasing the first film on Max.

M. Night Shyamalan’s “Trap,” also distribution-only for Warner, did decently against its $30 million budget with $76 million grossed globally, but “The Watchers,” the directorial debut of Shyamalan’s daughter, Ishana, made only $33 million worldwide.

But lest one forgets, it was Warner who provided theaters with most of the few bright spots in a winter and spring that was depleted by the 2023 double strike. “Wonka” was the sole major tentpole success of the holiday season, and its lead, Timothee Chalamet, proved his movie star abilities with the $709 million success of “Dune: Part Two.” Warner also found success with “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” which grossed $568 million and mitigated a deep April slump for theaters.

While other studios will have offerings like Sony’s “Venom 3,” Paramount’s “Transformers One” and Universal/DreamWorks’ “The Wild Robot,” it is Warner that is expected to have the most success this autumn. Along with “Beetlejuice 2,” Warner is sending in “Joker: Folie a Deux,” a sequel the 2019 Oscar and Golden Lion-winning film that also became the first R-rated film to reach $1 billion worldwide.

But a $100 million launch wasn’t supposed to be on the table for “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.” For a legacy-quel to reach those heights, it needs to be able to hook in Gen Z moviegoers who weren’t born when the first film hit theaters. “Top Gun: Maverick” did that. “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” did not.

That is where Jenna Ortega comes in. Before she even turned 21, the California-born actress has already breathed new life into long-running IP, starring in Paramount and Spyglass’ successful revival of the “Scream” series while giving Netflix one of its biggest recent hits with the “Addams Family” spinoff “Wednesday.” Firmly established as one of the fresh new faces of horror, she stars in “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” as Astrid, the daughter of the original film’s protagonist, Lydia Deetz, played once again by Winona Ryder.

Longtime fans of “Beetlejuice” are obviously going to be sold on seeing Michael Keaton once again play the delightfully macabre miscreant of the underworld, but it is Ortega who is serving as a gateway for Zoomers who have no long-held fondness for Burton’s film but may have seen the actress in her previous scream queen work. Her presence opens the film up to a new division of the moviegoing populace, who could be won over by Burton’s signature creative style but might have glanced over “Beetlejuice 2” otherwise.

Since its Venice premiere last week, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” has received generally positive reviews, currently holding an 80% Rotten Tomatoes score. Next week’s big releases being the Lionsgate action film “The Killer’s Game” and Universal/Blumhouse’s remake of “Speak No Evil,” a Danish horror film that is bent on disturbing audiences rather than offering fun frights like “Beetlejuice 2.”

Between that and the animated films like “Transformers One” and “Wild Robot” coming in the latter half of the month, “Beetlejuice 2” has everything in place to leg out into the Halloween season if audiences give it a thumbs up this weekend. Given that theaters were waiting for the surprise arrival of Taylor Swift’s concert film this time last year, there’s plenty of optimism for the marketplace in the weeks ahead.

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