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
Beetlejuice arrived in 1988 through Warner Bros., a Tim Burton production that mixed haunted house comedy with practical effects and a distinctly macabre sense of humor. It became a sleeper hit, launching an animated series, theme park attractions, and eventually a stage musical, while cementing Michael Keaton's early reputation for unpredictable, high energy performances. The film's success helped Burton establish the visual style he would carry into later work, and it remains a touchstone of late eighties studio filmmaking that dared to be strange.
This cell carries the film's own name as its subject, placing it among the most sought after frames for collectors, since it points directly to the title character rather than a supporting figure or setting. Beetlejuice the character is the film's chaotic center, the reason the story exists at all, and a single 35mm frame bearing his name functions almost like a title card in miniature, a marker of the character's presence rather than a captured scene. For collectors, that direct naming carries weight beyond any single moment in the picture.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print of Beetlejuice (1988).
Gauge
35mm, confirmed by four perforations per frame visible on both edges; the strip holds three frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, cleanly punched with no torn or deformed holes visible.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical soundtrack track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area, appearing as a fine modulated stripe.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture.
Base & colour
Base shows a pale yellow-amber tint consistent with acetate or polyester safety stock; dye image appears rich and saturated with no visible fading or colour shift.
Projection history
Light horizontal scratching is visible across the base surface, consistent with a projected print that has passed through a gate.
Picture
Positive colour image; the three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single continuous shot, and the subject matter is consistent with a theatrical release print of Beetlejuice (1988).
Era check
The variable-area optical soundtrack, amber-tinted safety base, and saturated dye image are all consistent with a 35mm 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 000063318
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
