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., a Tim Burton project that mixed haunted-house sentiment with anarchic comedy and made a star of its supporting madman rather than its leads. The film's success gave Burton the clout for Batman and cemented Michael Keaton's rubber-faced turn as one of the era's most quotable performances. It holds a place in the studio's late-80s output as proof that a strange, small idea could still find a wide audience, and it has aged into a genuine cult touchstone, referenced and revived for decades since.
This piece brings together the film's three central figures: the recently deceased homeowners Barbara and Adam Maitland, and the freelance bio-exorcist they reluctantly summon. Collectors seek frames that unite all three because so much of the story's tension and comedy comes from their uneasy alliance. A cell pairing them speaks to that dynamic directly, a single strip preserving the moment their fates become tangled together.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm colour theatrical 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 dual-bilateral (two-track) variable-area stripe.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture at sufficient resolution to read manufacturer codes or key numbers.
Base & colour
Base appears a warm cream-yellow tint consistent with an acetate safety base; the dye image reads as a colour positive with no obvious red shift or fading.
Projection history
Fine longitudinal lines consistent with projection wear are visible across the frame area; no splices or cue marks seen.
Picture
Positive colour image; frames run consecutively as a single continuous shot, and the visible costumes and staging are consistent with a theatrical release print of Beetlejuice (1988).
Era check
The dual-bilateral variable-area optical track, warm acetate base tint, and colour positive image are all consistent with a 35mm 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 000063331
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
