Box office: ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ revives movie theaters with $145 million global opening
After a month of the same three or four movies dominating the box office, September kicked off with a hit sequel coming out 36 years after an earlier installment. Read on for the weekend box office report.
Although not every legacy sequel (as they’re now called) has done well, enough of them have been blockbuster hits that Warner Bros’ decision to reunite filmmaker Tim Burton with Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, and Catherine O’Hara for “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” proved to be a genius move. Burton also brought along his “Wednesday” star, Jenna Ortega, as well as Willem Dafoe, Justin Theroux, and Monica Bellucci. After premiering at the Venice Film Festival, the sequel racked up mostly positive reviews with 77% on Rotten Tomatoes, and Warner Bros. gave it an ultra-wide release into 4,575 theaters, one of the top 10 widest domestic releases ever.
It ended up making $13 million in Thursday previews (including a few Wednesday screenings) and $41.5 million on Friday, including those previews. As of Sunday, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” is estimated to have made $110 million its opening weekend, making it the third-biggest opening for 2024, and only the third movie this year to open with over $100 million. This is only the second time that Burton had a movie open over $100 million after “Alice in Wonderland” in 2010. Its “B+” CinemaScore should also be considered a major win, since it will have some family fare competition coming up later in September.
Overseas, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” scared up another $35.4 million in 69 territories for a global opening weekend of $145.4 million.
Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman as “Deadpool and Wolverine” dropped back down to second place with an estimated $7.2 million (down 53%), but it has grossed $614 million domestically, a huge return to form for Marvel Studios.
“Reagan,” the biopic starring Dennis Quaid as the former President, continues to do better than anyone expected, taking third place this weekend with $5.2 million, a negligible drop from its Labor Day weekend of just 32%. The Showbiz Direct release has grossed $18.5 million so far, and we’ll have to see if it continues to act as counter-programming through September.
Blake Lively‘s hit drama “It Ends with Us” remained in fifth place with $3.7 million, just behind “Alien: Romulus,” which is projected to take fourth place with $3.9 million. Since those projections are based on Sunday estimates, Lively’s film could very well pull ahead when actuals are reported.
“It Ends with Us” has grossed $141.4 million just in North America, compared to the $97.2 million grossed by “Alien: Romulus,” something few would have predicted earlier in the summer. “Alien: Romulus” is doing huge business overseas, especially in China, where it has already crossed the $100 million mark.
Sony and Affirm Films’ faith-based drama, “The Forge,” took sixth place with $2.9 million, down just 36% from Labor Day weekend, as it brought its North American gross to $20.8 million.
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After an impressive bump into third place over Labor Day weekend, Universal’s “Twisters” had a massive 71% drop to seventh place with $2.3 million. Still, it has grossed $264.6 domestically, a boon for Universal, who also had the animated hit “Despicable Me,” which has grossed $351.8 million just in North America, and it’s still in the top 10 after eight weeks.
The Zoë Kravitz thriller “Blink Twice,” starring Channing Tatum, had a 56% drop to eighth place with an added $2.1 million for a $20.3 million domestic total.
This was the second weekend in a row with a horror movie bombing badly, as A24’s “The Front Room,” starring Brandy Norwood and Kathryn Hunter received mixed reviews with 50% on Rotten Tomatoes. Still, the film, directed by Sam and Max Eggers, was released into 2,095 theaters on Friday, but it only made $600k its opening day, leading to an estimated $1.7 million for the weekend. Besides just barely getting into the top 10 in tenth place, “The Front Room” also received a terrible “C-” CinemaScore, which general means that it won’t have much in terms of legs.
The similarly-named serial killer suspense thriller, “Red Rooms,” was released by Utopia Entertainment into 50 theaters where it made $40,295, averaging $806 per location.
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Only four players didn’t pick “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” to win the weekend in the box office prediction game – a bold move indeed. Players were fairly evenly split between predicting “Beetlejuice” would open over $100 million or under $100 million. The ten players that correctly guessed “Reagan” would move into third place have a good chance at perfect scores this weekend, although “The Front Room” not making it into the top five might ruin many players’ predictions this weekend.
The August 30 game was another tough one, as only two players predicted five-out-of-six correctly, with “After Misery” coming out just ahead of “DLBartlett127” with 16,758 points to the latter’s 15,693.
On Friday, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” will take on new movies in the horror remake of “Speak No Evil” and Dave Bautista‘s action-comedy, “The Killer’s Game,” and as always, you can check back on Wednesday for our weekend preview.