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 through Warner Bros. in 1988, Beetlejuice arrived as Tim Burton's breakout studio feature, a comedy of the afterlife that mixed practical effects with a distinctly macabre sense of humor. It made a star vehicle of Michael Keaton and helped define a visual language for supernatural comedy that studios would chase for years afterward. The film's blend of suburban satire and gothic invention gave it lasting cultural footing well beyond its initial box office run.
This cell brings together the film's three central figures: Beetlejuice himself, the freelance bio exorcist, alongside Adam and Barbara Maitland, the recently deceased couple whose haunted house forms the story's stage. Collectors prize this pairing because it captures the core triangle driving the plot, the dead homeowners and the chaotic spirit they summon to reclaim their space. A 35mm frame uniting all three speaks to the film's ensemble comedy at its heart, a snapshot of the uneasy alliance that fuels the entire narrative.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm colour release print of Beetlejuice (1988).
Gauge
35mm, four perforations per frame on both edges; the strip holds three complete frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on each edge, evenly spaced; punched edges appear clean with no torn or missing perforations visible.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area, appearing as a single variable-area stripe.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture at sufficient resolution to read manufacturer codes or key numbers.
Base & colour
Base appears warm cream-ivory; dye image shows rich colour saturation with no obvious fading or red shift.
Projection history
Light longitudinal lines consistent with projection are visible across the frame area; no splices or cue marks seen.
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
A single variable-area optical track without Dolby Digital data blocks or DTS timecode is consistent with a 1988 theatrical release print predating those formats.
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 000063326
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
