Juice is loose as Beetlejuice sequel is box office hit

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice has had a stellar opening weekend as it earned an impressive $110m (£83m) in the US box office.

The film, which is the highly anticipated sequel to Tim Burton’s 1988 Beetlejuice, is the second biggest September opening ever after 2017’s IT.
The supernatural comedy is also the third biggest debut of 2024, behind Inside Out 2 ($154.2 million) and Deadpool & Wolverine ($211.4 million).

Michael Keaton has reprised his role as the titular chaos-causing ghoul in the sequel.
Catherine O’Hara and Winona Ryder also returned to the franchise and were joined by other actors including Wednesday star Jenna Ortega and Oscar-nominated actor Willem Dafoe.
The film sees Lydia Deetz on a mission to save her rebellious daughter Astrid after she accidentally finds herself in the Afterlife.

The film has received mixed reviews from critics.
The New York Times described the cult classic reboot as “a fun but less edgy sequel”, adding that Burton has “played it safe, going lightly meta while replaying their greatest hits with knowing winks”.

Burton, who has also directed Edward Scissorhands, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Alice in Wonderland, said the fantastical venture into the afterlife was a project “from my heart”.

The Guardian wrote that the sequel was “a pivotal picture for the director”.
“It was a calling card; the moment at which he was fully able to indulge his macabre, goth-boy, grand guignol vision.”

In the three-star-review, Wendy Ide added that the movie “was never going to match the instant cult appeal of the original, but it has a lot of fun trying”.

Similarly, The Independent awarded the film two-stars and said that there are some “wonderful gags and enjoyably grotesque clowning from Keaton” but Burton’s “ability to tell a coherent story is very much in doubt”.
Geoffrey Macnab praised Keaton’s role reprisal and also noted a humorous cameo from Danny DeVito and a strong performance from Monica Belluci as we see her staple her mutilated body back together to a remix of Tragedy.

But he added that Ortega was “relatively conventional and restrained as the stock moody daughter”.
“Next to the vomiting, gurning, maniacally grinning Keaton, she can’t help but seem a little bland and strait-laced.”

However, NME wrote in a four-star review of the film that Ortega “reanimates” the undead classic and applauds her performance as a the “sharp, disenchanted daughter”.
While the sequel was a hit at the US box office, it didn’t fare as well abroad as it made $35m in 69 foreign markets.