The juice is loose – again

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Dominated the Box Office during its opening week, with Box Office Mojo (a service provided by IMDb) revealing it raked in over 117 million dollars domestically.

The film’s opening was so successful it is now the second-best-performing opening weekend for September ever, as reported by publications like Rotten Tomatoes,Variety, and The Hollywood Reporter, only beaten by Andrés Muschietti’s 2017 adaptation of the acclaimed Stephen King novel It.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is also the third highest-grossing September release ever, beaten out by Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and It Chapter One.  

However, this newfound success for the series has left a question ringing in my head like a distant bell. Why? Why is this sequel so successful, especially after debuting 36 years after the original, and what is it about the original that left people wanting more?  

Beetlejuice (and its sequel) is a film directed by Tim Burton. It premiered March 29, 1988, releasing to both financial and critical success. Reviews published days after release praised the imaginative and wacky world Burton presents in the film. Michael Keaton’s performance as the titular bio-exorcist Beetlejuice is another highlight, providing much of the flicks biggest scares and laughs.  

Beetlejuice follows the freshly dead couple, Adam and Barbara Maitland, after meeting an early end in a watery grave. The couple finds themselves struggling with their former home’s new residents and end up locking themselves in the attic to try and devise some scares on the new Deetz family, hoping to frighten them away. Ultimately, Adam and Barbara hire the bio-exorcist Beetlejuice to finish what they couldn’t. Despite Being the titular character, Beetlejuice appears in the film much less than you might expect. However, in the scenes Beetlejuice does appear, he ends up stealing the show, bringing an even deeper level of chaotic weirdness to this film.  

Between the cartoony gags and haunted imagery, There is a focus on the nonsensical yet bureaucratic nature of the afterlife Burton presents. Ghosts can’t leave their house without stepping foot on Venus. Ghosts have caseworkers. Every ghost receives a handbook for the recently deceased. And be careful with those caseworkers you only get three meetings.  

This film can feel like a whacky yet delightful fever dream. Beetlejuice is nonsensical. It is bizarre. And yet, it leaves you with a sense of wonder you never thought possible.  

Overall, what makes Beetlejuice unique is many different aspects. The effects still hold up, the jokes still land with immaculate timing, and the bizarre charisma that this film uniquely drips with is just as charming now as it was 36 years ago. So why was the opening for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice so successful? Because people love Beetlejuice and the frightening laughs the series provides.