“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” a follow-up to Tim Burton’s 1988 classic, has landed with a bang, raking in an estimated $110 million in US ticket sales over its opening weekend, based on Comscore data.
The “stellar domestic opening” is the second-highest ever for a movie in September, topped only by “It,” which earned $123 million in its first weekend in 2017, Boxoffice Pro said Sunday.
“The generation-spanning audiences for the new ‘Beetlejuice’ saw kids and adults dressing up for showings, turning it into an event,” said the official publication of the National Association of Theatre Owners. “It is that rare sequel that felt like a continuation and not a remake of the original, while still giving audiences what they wanted.”
Worldwide, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” which stars Jenna Ortega, Winona Ryder and Michael Keaton, earned an estimated $145.4 million over the weekend, according to Comscore.
“Ortega sold this new film to the under-25s and is emerging as Tim Burton’s new muse à la Johnny Depp,” Boxoffice Pro said.
Ortega, who plays Astrid, the daughter of Ryder’s character, Lydia Deetz, wasn’t born until nearly 15 years after the first “Beetlejuice” came out and she didn’t see the original film until she was about 9 years old.
“Jenna had to be born, become an actress and work with Tim,” Catherine O’Hara, who reprises her role as Delia Deetz in the new film, said in a recent interview with CNN, explaining why the sequel took so long to “click.”
Ortega told CNN that Burton offered her the “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” role while they were working together on the second season of Netflix hit show “Wednesday,” which is based on another dark and macabre franchise, “The Addams Family.”
The movie was released by Warner Bros., which is owned by CNN’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery.
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