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 from The Geffen Company through Warner Bros. in 1988, a Tim Burton production that turned the studio ghost story inside out. Michael Keaton's manic bio-exorcist collided with Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis as the recently deceased Maitlands, and the film's blend of practical effects, gallows humor, and set design made it an instant touchstone of late eighties American cinema, launching a franchise that still resonates in merchandise and culture today.
This cell brings together the film's three central figures in a single strip, pairing Keaton's rendition of the title character with the Maitlands he alternately torments and, eventually, aids. Collectors prize any grouping of these three names together, since it represents the core triangle driving the plot: the haunted homeowners and the entity they summon. A 35mm cell of this kind typically comes from theatrical release prints, offering a physical fragment of the picture as audiences first saw it projected.
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 two 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 bilateral variable-area track.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture at sufficient resolution to read manufacturer codes or key numbers.
Base & colour
Base shows a warm cream-yellow tint consistent with an acetate safety base; dye image appears neutral with no obvious red shift or fading.
Projection history
Light longitudinal lines consistent with projection wear are visible across the frame area; no splices or cue marks seen.
Picture
Positive colour image; the two frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single continuous shot, consistent with a release print of Beetlejuice (1988).
Era check
A single bilateral variable-area optical track on acetate safety base is consistent with a standard theatrical release print from 1988, before DTS or SDDS formats were introduced.
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 000063328
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
