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 by Warner Bros. in 1988, Beetlejuice arrived as Tim Burton's second feature and the film that established his distinct visual sensibility for a mainstream audience. Blending horror and comedy in ways studios rarely risked at the time, it introduced Michael Keaton's manic performance as the titular "bio-exorcist" alongside Geena Davis, Alex Baldwin, and Winona Ryder in an early breakout role. The film's success proved that a strange, macabre premise could still find broad appeal, and it went on to spawn an animated series and, decades later, a long-awaited sequel, cementing its place as a defining work of late-80s studio filmmaking.
This piece preserves the title card, the moment audiences first see the film's name rendered on screen before the story begins. Title cards mark a transition point in a print, separating the opening credits sequence from the narrative proper, and collectors prize them as the purest distillation of a film's identity captured on celluloid. For Beetlejuice, this frame carries the weight of the name itself, inseparable from Keaton's character and the film's reputation as a touchstone of Burton's early career, making it a natural anchor piece for anyone assembling a collection around this title.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm optical-track release print of Beetlejuice (1988).
Gauge
35mm, confirmed by four perforations per frame 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 soundtrack track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture at sufficient resolution to quote characters, though faint edge printing is present along the left border.
Base & colour
Base appears a warm cream-yellow tint consistent with acetate or polyester safety stock; the dye image reads as neutral black with colourful title art, no visible fading or red shift.
Projection history
Two faint parallel horizontal lines are visible running across the lower portion of the strip, consistent with light projection wear.
Picture
Positive image; both frames show the same title-card graphic reading BEETLEJUICE, consistent with a title sequence frame from the film on record.
Era check
A variable-area optical track, warm safety base, and the BEETLEJUICE title-card design are all consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print from the late 1980s production period.
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 000063334
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
