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Here’s something September hasn’t seen in seven years: a movie opening to north of $100M over a Friday-Sunday span.
Whatever Warner Bros. lost over the summer in largely a string of flops — its May-to-Labor Day season didn’t even break $170M — the David Zaslav-run entertainment conglom will make up for this fall beginning with the long-awaited sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. The Tim Burton-directed pic starring Michael Keaton is eyeing a global start as high as $145M.
Broken out, that’s $100M-$110M, per various tracking and exhibition bean counters, with around $35M from 69 offshore markets (a 75% international footprint). The last big opening of this magnitude stateside in September was New Line’s It, with $123.4M domestic in 2017. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice presales, I understand, are ahead of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which turned in a 3-day of $118.4M. Given further boost to audiences’ appetite for this classic is the addition of Wednesday megastar Jenna Ortega to the original cast, which also includes Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara. It’s no wonder why first choice and unaided awareness is strong overall with women. Warners believes the opening is at $80M domestic.
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At the end of the day, the sequel’s stateside opening will be more than the lifetime of the original 1988 movie, which finaled at $74.6M, unadjusted for inflation. No doubt about it, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is primed to tee off a massive fall and holiday box office period after last year’s desert spurred by the strikes; Warner’s next big hit is the Todd Phillips-Joaquin Phoenix-Lady Gaga sequel Joker: Folie à Deux on October 4.
The Juice will be loose starting Wednesday in Korea, followed by Italy, Australia, Brazil and Mexico on Thursday and Spain and the UK on Friday.
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Beetlejuice Beetlejuice stateside is booked in roughly 4,500 theaters — the biggest theater count of 2024 so far — including premium formats Imax, ScreenX, 4DX, Dolby, Dbox and PLFs with Wednesday fan previews in Dolby, Imax and other formats in 1,000 locations and Thursday previews starting at 3 p.m. More good voodoo for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice: 41 reviews out of its Venice world premiere stand at 78% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
Warner Bros was smart to launch the movie on the Lido last week, and then immediately follow that up by a London red carpet to drum up awareness. This all was preceded by a cast fan meet-and-greet in Mexico City last month. But it remains to be seen how much impact that has on audiences who don’t carry the familiarity or nostalgia for the 36-year-old cult classic.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is viewed as a more domestic-skewing property — similar to the rebooted Ghostbusters franchise, which did significantly more business from North America as compared to international in its most recent iterations.
We expect Anglo markets the UK and Australia to perform well, and Mexico also could chime in nicely. Germany, where U.S. humor translates best amongst the Euro majors, doesn’t go until September 12. France, which tends to lean in to Burton and Keaton, also doesn’t release until next week, given that kids are consumed with going back to school this session. Asia is likely to struggle, again, from the lack of history. The film was not cleared in China, presumably down to its ghostly themes. Japan goes on September 27.
A24 has the R-rated Max and Sam Eggers horror movie The Front Room going in around 2,000 locations. The Brandy Norwood headliner follows a newly pregnant couple who are forced to take in an ailing, estranged stepmother. The Front Room is registering in the single digits for the weekend, per tracking. Showtimes start on Thursday at 4 p.m.
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