Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a 2024 American dark fantasy comedy horror film directed by Tim Burton from a screenplay by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. A sequel to Beetlejuice (1988) and the second film of the Beetlejuice franchise, the film stars Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, and Catherine O'Hara reprising their roles alongside new cast members Justin Theroux, Monica Bellucci, Jenna Ortega, and Willem Dafoe.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice opened the 81st Venice International Film Festival on August 28, 2024, and was theatrically released overseas on September 4, 2024, and in the United States by Warner Bros. Pictures two days later. The film has received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $162 million worldwide on a $100 million budget.
== Plot ==
In 2024, Lydia Deetz is the host of a supernatural talk show called Ghost House, produced by her boyfriend Rory. During the taping of a segment, she sees visions of the ghost Betelgeuse, who haunted her family thirty-six years earlier, in the audience.
Shortly thereafter, Delia, Lydia's stepmother, shares the news about the death of her father, Charles. En route to Winter River for the funeral services, the surviving Deetz family pick up Lydia's estranged daughter, Astrid, from boarding school. Following the funeral services, Rory proposes to Lydia in front of the attendees, which she reluctantly accepts, causing Astrid to flee and meet Jeremy Frazier, who invites her over prior to the wedding on Halloween.
Sometime later, Astrid discovers a box of items belonging to her father Richard, who disappeared two years earlier in South America, and an ad to contact Betelgeuse. She learns that Jeremy is actually a ghost seeking her help to restore his life. They enter the afterlife after he has Astrid recite an incantation from the Handbook for the Recently Deceased.
Discovering Jeremy is dead and his past as a murderer, Lydia reluctantly calls upon Betelgeuse to help retrieve Astrid. He agrees but demands that Lydia marry him, allowing him to stay in the mortal world and escape Delores, his vengeful ex-wife and murderer in the afterlife. Meanwhile, Delia conducts a ceremony at Charles' grave using two live snakes she believed were no longer venomous, that bite and kill her.
Lydia consents to the marriage, and Betelgeuse and she are transported into the afterlife train station in an attempt to stop Astrid from boarding the "Soul Train", which transports souls into the beyond. By reciting the incantation, Astrid was tricked into switching places with Jeremy in order for him to regain his life. She recognizes one of the station's employees as her father Richard, who rescues her and Lydia while Betelgeuse sends Jeremy to Hell.
Hunted by ghost detective Wolf Jackson for bringing Lydia into the afterlife, Betelgeuse agrees to help Delia find Charles if she helps him find Lydia, who along with Astrid was ushered away and returned to Winter River by Richard. At a church in the mortal world, Lydia and Astrid arrive as Rory waits at the altar.
Betelgeuse, with Delia's assistance, hijacks the wedding, injecting Rory with truth serum to reveal that he never loved Lydia and only intended to marry her for her money. Enraged, she punches Rory, knocking him out. As Betelgeuse prepares to marry Lydia, Delores arrives to confront him, as does Wolf with his team. Using the handbook as a guide, Astrid unleashes a sandworm into the church that eats Delores and Rory, while Betelgeuse subdues Wolf by freezing him and his men in place.
Astrid reveals that Betelgeuse violated the rules of the handbook by bringing Lydia into the afterlife, thwarting the wedding and allowing Lydia to return him to the afterlife. Afterward, Lydia and Astrid reassure Delia of their love for her as she is escorted to the afterlife by Wolf. She soon reunites with Charles before boarding the Soul Train for Heaven.
Sometime later, Lydia films the final segment of her last episode of Ghost House, opting to spend time with Astrid. Despite this, she continues to have nightmares about Betelgeuse, including one in which Astrid gives birth to his child. After a false awakening within a lucid nightmare, wherein Betelgeuse lies beside her, Lydia looks at the side of the bed, traumatized and alone.
== Cast ==
== Production ==
===Development===
After the success of Beetlejuice (1988), a sequel was fast-tracked by The Geffen Film Company. Two Beetlejuice sequel scripts were commissioned in 1990: the first, Beetlejuice in Love, was penned by screenwriter Warren Skaaren, who did a heavy re-write on the first film's script. In Skaaren's sequel, Betelgeuse meets Leo, who tragically plummets to his death while proposing to his girlfriend, Julia, on the Eiffel Tower. When Leo enters the afterlife, Betelgeuse escapes to the world of the living and pursues Julia. Skaaren died shortly after turning in his first draft of the In Love script. That same year, Tim Burton hired Jonathan Gems to write a potential Beetlejuice sequel titled Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian. "Tim thought it would be funny to match the surfing backdrop of a beach movie with some sort of German Expressionism, because they're totally wrong together," Gems said. The story followed the Deetz family moving to Hawaii, where Charles is developing a resort. They soon discover that his company is building on the burial ground of an ancient Hawaiian Kahuna. The spirit comes back from the afterlife to cause trouble, and Betelgeuse becomes a hero by winning a surf contest with magic. Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder agreed to do the film, on the condition that Burton directed, but both he and Keaton became occupied with Batman Returns (1992).
Burton was still interested in Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian in early 1991. Impressed with Daniel Waters' work on Heathers (1989), which also stars Winona Ryder, Burton approached him for a rewrite. However, he eventually signed Waters to write the script for Batman Returns. By August 1993, producer David Geffen hired Pamela Norris (Troop Beverly Hills, Saturday Night Live) to rewrite. Warner Bros. approached Kevin Smith in 1996 to rewrite the script, though Smith turned down the offer in favor of Superman Lives. Smith later joked that his response was "Didn't we say all we needed to say in the first Beetlejuice? Must we go tropical?" In March 1997, Gems released a statement saying "The Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian script is still owned by The Geffen Company and it will likely never get made. You really couldn't do it now anyway. Winona is too old for the role, and the only way they could make it would be to totally recast it." Burton had considered several other sequel ideas as well over the years, saying in 2024, "We talked about lots of different things. That was early on when we were going, Beetlejuice and the Haunted Mansion, Beetlejuice Goes West, whatever. Lots of things came up," but all those initial scenarios set in Hawaii, the Wild West or Paris, France were all scrapped.
In September 2011, Warner Bros. hired Seth Grahame-Smith, who collaborated with Burton on Dark Shadows and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (both 2012), to write and produce a sequel to Beetlejuice. Grahame-Smith signed on with the intention of doing "a story that is worthy of us actually doing this for real, something that is not just about cashing in, is not just about forcing a remake or a reboot down someone's throat." He was also adamant that Keaton would return and that Warner Bros. would not recast the role. Burton and Keaton had not officially signed on but would return if the script was good enough. Grahame-Smith met with Keaton in February 2012, "We talked for a couple of hours and talked about big picture stuff. It's a priority for Warner Bros. It's a priority for Tim. [Michael's] been wanting to do it for 20 years and he'll talk to anybody about it who will listen."In November 2013, Ryder hinted at a possible return for the sequel as well by saying, "I'm kind of sworn to secrecy but it sounds like it might be happening. It's 27 years later. And I have to say, I love Lydia Deetz so much. She was such a huge part of me. I would be really interested in what she is doing 27 years later." Ryder confirmed that she would only consider making a sequel if Burton and Keaton were involved. In December 2014, Burton stated, "It's a character that I love and I miss actually working with Michael. There's only one Betelgeuse. We're working on a script and I think it's probably closer than ever and I'd love to work with him again." In January 2015, writer Grahame-Smith told Entertainment Weekly that the script was finished and that he and Burton intended to start filming Beetlejuice 2 by the end of the year, and that both Keaton and Ryder would return in their respective roles. While negotiating to join the Netflix show Stranger Things as Joyce Byers in mid-2015, Ryder accepted that role under the sole request to The Duffer Brothers that if a Beetlejuice sequel ever got greenlighted, they would let her take a break from the series to film it, as she and Burton had been having conversations about the project since 2000; the Duffers agreed. In August 2015, on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Ryder confirmed she would be reprising her role in the sequel. In May 2016, Burton stated, "It's something that I really would like to do in the right circumstances, but it's one of those films where it has to be right. It's not a kind of a movie that cries out [for a sequel], it's not the Beetlejuice trilogy. So it's something that if the elements are right—because I do love the character and Michael's amazing as that character, so yeah we'll see. But there's nothing concrete yet." In October 2017, Mike Vukadinovich was hired to re-write the script. In April 2019, Warner Bros. stated the sequel had been shelved.
===Pre-production===
In February 2022, a sequel was announced again, this time produced by Brad Pitt's studio Plan B Entertainment, alongside Warner Bros. Burton stated in October 2022 that he was not involved in the project, but backtracked days later, saying "nothing is out of the question." Burton ultimately returned as the film's director and tried to strip everything from the story to go to the basics of working with "good people, actors and puppets," feeling that the project made him reflect why he liked making movies. Burton came up with the film's story upon thinking about Lydia Deetz, a character of his with whom he connected as a teenager, wondering what could have been of her life after the first film's events and how her family life could have developed, turning from a "cool teenager" into a "f—ed-up adult" who hosts a popular medium-related show titled Ghost House with Lydia Deetz whose daughter hates her, Burton credited the years of his life since the original film's release as the reason he couldn't do Beetlejuice Beetlejuice until then, having experienced many of those things himself, finding the project a very personal movie starring a weird family in a family-friendly and emotional story of three generations experiencing basic things everyone feels in life when growing up. Burton and Keaton agreed to not use excessive amounts of technology, and sought to make the film feel "handmade". With a plot likened to Willy Wonka's psychedelic boat ride in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) that takes "very big swings" like unhinged and uncontrollable phantasmagoria and Burton's head being "dumped out" onto the screen, Keaton felt the film's story to be stronger than its predecessor's, with "more of a connection" to the audience in terms of characters, finding "beyond delightful" things he wasn't ready for while Ryder confidently expressed her belief that the film exceeded her high expectations and expected every generation to find something they can appreciate from the film.
In March 2023, it was reported by Variety that Jenna Ortega, who previously worked with Burton on the 2022 Netflix series Wednesday, was in talks to play Astrid Deetz, Lydia's daughter, while Burton was now expected to direct the film. Ortega and Ryder formed an "insane" and "intense" bond as they worked together, with the latter seeing a younger but a thousand times cooler version of herself in the former, while sharing hobbies like both being cinephiles and regarding the experience of working with each other special, resulting in Ortega developing her own performance for Astrid. In May, Danny Elfman announced he was returning to compose the score for the sequel, while it was also revealed Ortega was confirmed to star, and Wednesday creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar wrote the script. Justin Theroux, Burn Gorman, Arthur Conti, Filipe Cates, and Willem Dafoe would also be added to the cast, in undisclosed roles, with Dafoe's being described as an afterlife officer. Dafoe later explained to Variety at the Marrakesh Film Festival that his character is an afterlife police officer who used to be a B movie action star in life before dying in an accident, with his skills leading him to become a detective within the realm. He later regretted sharing those details about his character, fearing that Burton may get angry with him for revealing a few spoilers from the film. Conti auditioned for the role over a Zoom call with Burton and a chemistry test with Ortega, receiving the news that he got the part on April Fools' Day, leading him to initially dismiss it as a practical joke. Catherine O'Hara reprises her role as Delia Deetz, as well as Monica Bellucci joining the cast as Betelgeuse's wife Delores. Gough didn't originally write Delores' first victim, a deceased janitor, with an actor in mind, so Burton called his frequent collaborator Danny DeVito for the role and DeVito accepted it.
Colleen Atwood, a frequent collaborator of Burton, was announced to be working on the costume design for the film. Atwood disclosed that Betelgeuse's striped suit would return in the film, as it is trademark to the character's quintessential appearance in the same way the titular character of Lewis Carroll's novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) sports an iconic blue dress, though Keaton disagreed and preferred Betelgeuse's burgundy tuxedo. O'Hara later confirmed that the film would include Harry Belafonte's 1955 song "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)", which was featured in the first film. The writers decided that the wedding sequence would feature a musical number with Betelgeuse "being the crazy ringleader of that whole situation" but were unsure of what song to use, and Burton suggested "MacArthur Park", which Gough found to be "the crazy, weird, insane thing you need at the end of this movie". Keaton insisted that Betelgeuse had limited screen time in the film like the first movie, saying, "The idea was, no, no, no, you can't load it up with Beetlejuice, that'll kill it, the Beetlejuice character doesn't drive the story as much as he did in the first one. He's more part of the storyline in this one as opposed to the first one, which is a case of, this thing comes in and drives the movie a little bit."
===Filming===
Filming was originally scheduled to begin in mid-2022. Later, it was delayed to an expected start date of May 10, 2023, taking place in London if the 2023 WGA strike did not lead to another delay in production. Production was officially confirmed to have begun the following day, with Haris Zambarloukos serving as cinematographer and Jay Prychidny serving as editor. On May 18, 2023, it was reported that filming was taking place around the Princess Helena College in Preston, Hertfordshire, England. Exterior filming took place in East Corinth, Vermont (the location of the original movie's outdoor scenes), in mid-2023. Filming was suspended in July due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Burton described the film, which he enjoyed making, as being "99% done." It had two days of production left, which was interrupted, with Ortega being contacted to continue filming four days after the strike had ended. Filming resumed on November 16, 2023, in Melrose, Massachusetts, and wrapped in Vermont on November 30, 2023.
===Post-production===
By March 2024, Keaton had seen a completed rough cut of the film and stated that further editing would occur thereafter. Later that month, it was stated in The Hollywood Reporter that Jeffrey Jones would not reprise his role as Charles Deetz in the film, his character being revealed in the trailers to have been killed off. In April, Geena Davis stated she would not be returning as Barbara Maitland due to her age, saying: "Our characters were stuck the way they looked when they died forever, so it's been a while, it's been a minute." In August, Burton would confirm via People that Davis and Alec Baldwin didn't return for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice as the Maitlands weren't needed for the story he wanted to tell, which he admitted that he personally couldn't have done in 1989 due to it focusing on three generations within the Deetz family. To explain their absence, Burton stated that the film would reveal the Maitlands used a loophole to leave their former house during the interim between this film and the original. Gough told Entertainment Weekly that an early draft for the film had the Maitlands making a cameo appearance at the end, he and Millar discussing the idea with Burton, but all three moved on from the concept as they felt no de-aging technology would be convincing enough to make the audience believe that Davis and Baldwin hadn't aged since 1988. Also, they felt that the Maitland couple's story had been told and their appearance would clash with Burton's decision to not make any fan service. Production VFX supervisor is Angus Bickerton, working with VFX producer Alex Bicknell, supported by visual effects studios Framestore, One of Us and BUF.
== Release ==
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice opened the 81st Venice International Film Festival on August 28, 2024, at the Sala Grande in a non-competitive slot. The film was theatrically released by Warner Bros. Pictures on September 6, 2024, including IMAX, 4DX and ScreenX engagements. In February 2024, the title of the film was revealed, and its release date was reiterated. At their 2024 CineEurope presentation, Warner Bros. announced that the film would be released overseas on September 4, 2024, two days before its domestic premiere. An estimated $100 million marketing effort helped promote Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
== Reception ==
===Box office===
, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice has grossed $126.2 million in the United States and Canada, and $36.2 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $162.4 million.
In the United States and Canada, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was released alongside The Front Room, and was projected to gross $100–110 million from 4,200 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $42 million on its first day, including $13 million from Thursday night previews. The film went on to debut with $111 million, registering the second biggest opening of September (behind It), the second biggest for Burton's career (behind Alice in Wonderland), and the third biggest opening of the year (behind Deadpool & Wolverine and Inside Out 2). Around 7.7 million admissions, 73% of the total weekend's box office earnings, came from the film alone. The opening weekend gross surpassed the entire $74 million run of the original film, unadjusted for inflation.
Internationally, the film debuted with $36.2 million from 69 markets. It had the biggest openings in the UK ($9.6 million), Mexico ($6.5 million), Australia ($2.6 million), Spain ($2.5 million) and Italy ($1.7 million).
===Critical response===
 Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, up from the "B" earned by the first film, while those surveyed by PostTrak gave it an 81% overall positive score, with 68% saying they would definitely recommend it.
Manohla Dargis of The New York Times called the film a "fun but less edgy sequel". Xan Brooks, writing for The Guardian, stated, "Burton's game attempt to bring the 1980s horror-comedy back from the spirit world is full of gaudy set-pieces but fails to add much to the original". Margaret Roarty of The Film Magazine stated that "the filmmaker manages to create something just as wacky and weird and meaningful as the original film".
== Cultural references ==
The black-and-white flashback sequence telling the story of Delores and Betelgeuse is narrated by the latter in Italian, a possible homage to Mario Bava, later referred to in the film.
== Future ==
When asked about a potential third film, Burton said, "Let's do the math...it took 35 years to do this, so I'll be over 100. But I guess it's possible with the advent of science these days, but I don't think so."
== Trailers ==
File:BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE - Official Trailer
File:Beetlejuice Beetlejuice - Official Trailer 2
File:BEETLEJUICE 2 Super Extended Trailer (4K ULTRA HD) 2024
File:BEETLEJUICE 2 Final Trailer (2024) Jenna Ortega, Michael Keaton
== External links ==
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== References ==
Category:2020s English-language films
Category:2020s fantasy comedy films
Category:2020s ghost films
Category:2024 black comedy films
Category:2024 comedy films
Category:2024 comedy horror films
Category:2024 fantasy films
Category:American black comedy films
Category:American comedy horror films
Category:American dark fantasy films
Category:American fantasy comedy films
Category:American haunted house films
Category:American sequel films
Category:Beetlejuice
Category:Films about the afterlife
Category:Films affected by the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike
Category:Films directed by Tim Burton
Category:Films produced by Brad Pitt
Category:Films produced by Dede Gardner
Category:Films produced by Jeremy Kleiner
Category:Films produced by Tim Burton
Category:Films scored by Danny Elfman
Category:Films set in boarding schools
Category:Films shot in Boston
Category:Films shot in England
Category:Films shot in Hertfordshire
Category:Films shot in London
Category:Films shot in Massachusetts
Category:Films shot in the United Kingdom
Category:Films shot in Vermont
Category:Films with screenplays by Alfred Gough
Category:Films with screenplays by Miles Millar
Category:Films with screenplays by Seth Grahame-Smith
Category:Plan B Entertainment films
Category:Warner Bros. films
Category:2024 films
Category:Films starring Michael Keaton
Category:Films starring Winona Ryder
Category:Films starring Catherine O'Hara
Category:Films starring Willem Dafoe
Category:Films starring Jenna Ortega
Category:Films starring Burn Gorman
Category:Films starring Monica Bellucci
Category:Films starring Justin Theroux
Category:Films starring Danny DeVito