Warner Bros. Entertainment · The Geffen Film Company · Q65557474 · 92 min
Box office
$73.7M worldwide on a $15M budget
Honors
Academy Awards — 1 win, 1 nominationKids' Choice Award — 1 nominationAll 1 wins · 2 nominations on record
Academy Awards: Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Scholarship
Named in the title of 10 peer-reviewed works
Examples
Beetlejuice, 2006
Cosa Nostra #33 – BeetleJuice — Institutional Repository of the National University Open and Distance UNAD (Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia), 2024
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice may have problems – but it’s Tim Burton’s best film in years, 2024
Sources: Wikidata · OpenAlex. The record of the motion picture, not an assessment of this cell.
FILM NOTES
Released by The Geffen Company and distributed through Warner Bros. in 1988, Beetlejuice arrived as Tim Burton's second feature and the film that made his sensibility a marketable force in Hollywood. Its blend of gothic art direction, dark comedy, and practical effects wizardry set a template for a certain strain of American fantasy filmmaking that persists today. Michael Keaton's turn as the title character became an instant cultural fixture, and the film's success paved the way for Burton's continued run through the late eighties and beyond, cementing his standing as a director with genuine box office pull.
This 35mm cell carries the film's own name as its subject, pointing straight to the character whose presence defines the picture. Betelgeuse, rendered here in both his formal and colloquial spellings, is the figure collectors chase hardest from this release, given his status as one of the era's most instantly recognizable creations. A cell bearing the character's own name suggests derivation from a title card, trailer clip, or credits sequence, the kind of material used to announce the film itself rather than a single scripted beat. For collectors building a Burton or Keaton run, this piece anchors the whole production to its central figure.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm colour positive theatrical release print of Beetlejuice (1988).
Gauge
35mm, confirmed by four perforations per frame on both edges; the strip holds three complete frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges; spacing appears even and the punched edges appear clean with no torn or missing perforations visible.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running as a continuous band of white waveform patterns along one edge, consistent with a dual bilateral or variable-area mono optical track.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture at sufficient resolution to read manufacturer codes or key numbers.
Base & colour
The base shows a cool blue-cyan cast across all three frames; the dye image retains strong saturation with no obvious fading.
Projection history
Fine longitudinal lines consistent with projection wear are visible across the frame area; no splices or cue marks are seen.
Picture
Positive colour image; all three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single shot, and the costuming and colour palette are consistent with Beetlejuice (1988).
Era check
The variable-area optical soundtrack, colour positive stock with cyan base tint, and 35mm four-perforation format are all consistent with a theatrical release print from the late 1980s.
Read from the original intake capture shown below. Observations only — film is authenticated, not graded.
This original motion picture film element has been examined and authenticated by Crown Grading in partnership with National Film Vault, and encapsulated for archival preservation.
Why so little survivesRelease prints were leased to theaters, not sold. When the run ended they went back to the distributor to be destroyed, and most were. What collectors hold today came from the prints that escaped that order, and no new 35mm prints of these films are being struck.
CROWN SERIAL 000063314
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
