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 from The Geffen Company through Warner Bros., a Tim Burton production that turned modest ambitions into a cultural touchstone. Its blend of gothic imagination, dark comedy, and stop-motion craft helped define Burton's early visual language and gave Winona Ryder one of her breakout roles. The film's success paved the way for an animated series, decades of merchandise, and eventually a stage musical and sequel, cementing its place as a defining piece of late-1980s studio filmmaking that balanced horror imagery with family-friendly absurdity.
This 35mm cell preserves Lydia Deetz, the melancholic teenager whose worldview bridges the living and the dead throughout the story. Played by Winona Ryder, Lydia remains one of the most collected characters from the film, prized for her distinctive style and her role as the human anchor amid the supernatural chaos. A cell bearing her name and likeness captures a piece of that identity directly from the source print, offering physical continuity with the original theatrical release rather than a reproduction or promotional artifact.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm 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, evenly spaced, cleanly punched with no torn or deformed holes visible.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along the lower edge between the perforations and the picture area; appears to be a single bilateral variable-area track.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture at sufficient resolution to read any key numbers or manufacturer text.
Base & colour
Base appears with a slight warm-amber tint consistent with an acetate safety base; dye image reads as a cool-blue dominant colour palette with no obvious fading or red shift.
Projection history
Light longitudinal scratches are visible along the base side, consistent with a print that has passed through a projector gate.
Picture
Positive colour image; all three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single shot, consistent with a release print of Beetlejuice (1988).
Era check
The single bilateral variable-area optical soundtrack, acetate base tint, and positive colour print 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 000063320
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
