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 in 1988 by The Geffen Company through Warner Bros., Beetlejuice arrived as Tim Burton's second feature and became a surprise commercial hit, cementing his early visual style and launching a franchise that would eventually span television and stage. The film's blend of macabre comedy and afterlife bureaucracy was unlike anything else on screens that year, and it gave Michael Keaton one of his defining roles as the freewheeling bio exorcist. For collectors of the era, this film represents a turning point where mainstream studio comedy met genuinely strange, director driven vision, making it a touchstone of late eighties Hollywood.
This cell brings together the three central figures of the story: Betelgeuse, played by Michael Keaton, and the recently deceased Maitlands, Adam and Barbara, played by Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis. Their shared presence marks the moment the living world and the afterlife collide, the engine of the entire plot. Collectors prize material featuring all three because it captures the film's core dynamic, the haunted homeowners bound to their house and the chaotic spirit they reluctantly summon. A 35mm cell like this preserves a physical fragment of that pairing, a tangible piece of the original theatrical presentation rather than a later reproduction.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print of Beetlejuice (1988).
Gauge
35mm, four perforations per frame visible on both edges; the strip holds two 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 as a narrow band along one edge, consistent with a single bilateral or variable-area mono/stereo track.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture at sufficient resolution to read manufacturer codes or key numbers clearly.
Base & colour
Base appears a pale yellow-amber tint typical of acetate or polyester safety stock; dye image reads as warm with no obvious red shift or fading.
Projection history
Light longitudinal scratches are visible in the picture area, consistent with a print that has passed through a projector gate.
Picture
Positive colour image; both frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single continuous shot, and the content is consistent with the 1988 fantasy-comedy film on record.
Era check
The variable-area optical soundtrack, warm-base colour stock, and perforation style 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 000063330
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
