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 The Geffen Company through Warner Bros., a Tim Burton production that turned a modestly budgeted horror comedy into a cultural touchstone. Michael Keaton's manic performance as the "bio-exorcist" opposite Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis as the recently deceased Maitlands helped define a new strain of macabre humor for mainstream audiences, and the film's success paved the way for Burton's ascent to major studio filmmaking, including his Batman the following year.
This 35mm cell brings together the three central figures of the story: Beetlejuice himself, the ghostly troublemaker collectors prize above nearly any other character in the film, alongside Barbara and Adam Maitland, the ordinary couple whose afterlife is upended by his arrival. A frame uniting all three speaks to the film's core dynamic, the collision between the Maitlands' domestic normalcy and Beetlejuice's chaotic presence. As a physical strip of release print, it preserves a piece of that pairing directly from the source material rather than a reproduction.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm colour optical theatrical release print of Beetlejuice (1988).
Gauge
35mm, confirmed by four perforations per frame on both edges; the strip holds three frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced; punched edges appear clean with no visible tearing or distortion.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area, appearing as two interlocking waveform lines consistent with a stereo variable-area optical track.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture at sufficient resolution to read manufacturer codes or key numbers.
Base & colour
Base appears with a slight warm-cream tint typical of processed acetate safety stock; dye image reads as a rich, saturated colour positive with no visible fading or red shift.
Projection history
Light longitudinal scratching is visible along the base side, consistent with a print that has passed through a projector gate.
Picture
Positive colour image; the three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single continuous shot, and the subject matter is consistent with the theatrical release of Beetlejuice (1988).
Era check
The stereo variable-area optical track, saturated colour dye image, and warm acetate base 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 000063332
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
