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 Warner Bros., directed by Tim Burton in his second feature, following the modest success of Pee-wee's Big Adventure. The film paired inventive practical effects with a comic sensibility that felt entirely new for a mainstream studio release, and it became a box office hit that expanded into an animated series and, decades later, a stage musical and sequel. It marked Michael Keaton's breakout into unhinged comic territory, a role that would define his early career and remain a reference point throughout it.
This cell centers on Betelgeuse himself, the "ghost with the most," rendered here through Michael Keaton's performance in a role collectors prize for its manic invention. The character's dual naming, Betelgeuse and Beetlejuice, reflects the film's own wordplay, the joke embedded in pronunciation and repetition. A cell drawn from Beetlejuice sits among the most sought frames of the era, a direct link to a performance that reshaped how audiences saw both the actor and the character.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print of Beetlejuice (1988).
Gauge
35mm; the strip holds three complete frames, with four perforations per frame visible on both the top and bottom edges.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges; spacing appears even and the punched holes appear cleanly cut with no visible tearing or distortion.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical soundtrack track is visible running as a narrow band along the bottom edge of the picture area, consistent with a mono or stereo optical print.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture; the edges are too dark and the strip angle obscures any key numbers or manufacturer text.
Base & colour
The base appears to carry a warm to slightly amber tint; the dye image reads with strong blue and dark tones, showing no obvious fading or red shift.
Projection history
Light vertical lines consistent with projection wear are faintly visible across the frames; 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 subject matter is consistent with a release print of Beetlejuice (1988).
Era check
The variable-area optical soundtrack, warm-base colour stock, and positive colour image 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 000063327
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
