| Beetlejuice | |
| Years: | 1988–present |
| Owner: | Warner Bros. Entertainment |
| Musicals: | Beetlejuice (2018–present) |
| Animated Series: | Beetlejuice (1989–1991) |
| Video Games: | List of video games |
Beetlejuice is an American dark fantasy comedy horror media franchise that originated with the film Beetlejuice (1988). The franchise centers around a devious trickster entity named Betelgeuse (after the star due to being part of the constellation named after the Greek god Orion, due that it means "the hand of Orion", who is famous for his hunting prowess and desire to kill every animal on Earth; the name is pronounced and often spelled "Beetlejuice") who can either be summoned or banished by saying his name three times. Betelgeuse's precise nature differs according to the medium he appears in. He has been depicted as a ghost, a demon, and a supernatural monster, with motivations ranging from a love of chaos to a desire for human companionship. Each entry in the series involves Betelgeuse's interactions with Lydia Deetz, a goth fascinated with the "strange and unusual". Across the various entries in the franchise, the pair have been presented as enemies, best friends and uneasy allies.
The original film was met with critical and commercial success and numerous accolades. The franchise expanded with the release of a 1989–1991 animated television series, a 2018 stage musical, several video games, and an eventual sequel film, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024).
| Film | U.S. release date | Director | Screenwriters | Story by | Producers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beetlejuice | Tim Burton | Michael McDowell and Warren Skaaren | Michael McDowell & Larry Wilson | Michael Bender, Larry Wilson and Richard Hashimoto | |
| Beetlejuice Beetlejuice | Alfred Gough & Miles Millar | Alfred Gough & Miles Millar and Seth Grahame-Smith | Marc Toberoff, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Tommy Harper and Tim Burton |
See main article: Beetlejuice.
Beetlejuice is directed by Tim Burton, and written by Michael McDowell, Warren Skaaren and Larry Wilson.[1] [2] Starring Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Jeffrey Jones, Catherine O'Hara, Winona Ryder, and Michael Keaton as the titular character, produced by The Geffen Film Company, and distributed by Warner Bros..
Happily married couple Adam and Barbara Maitland die in a car accident. They learn the afterlife is a complex, overworked bureaucracy, and that they are required to haunt their old home for 125 years before they can move on. The Maitlands' rural Connecticut home is purchased by New York real estate developer Charles Deetz, who wants to use it as a retreat from his workaholic city life. Accompanying Charles are his new wife, Delia, a modern artist; and Lydia, Charles' teenage daughter from his first marriage. Charles and Delia's presence upsets the Maitlands, although the childless couple bond with Lydia, a goth whose interest in the "strange and unusual" allows her to see them.
The Maitlands make contact with Betelgeuse, an older, more powerful ghost who formerly worked for the celestial bureaucracy before his loathsome nature alienated him from his superiors. Betelgeuse offers to work for the couple as a "bio-exorcist" and frighten the Deetzes away. The Maitlands initially agree, but are put off by Betelgeuse's crude demeanor and violent tactics. Upon meeting Lydia himself, Betelgeuse becomes smitten with her and attempts to lure her to the afterlife. Meanwhile, Delia's life coach, Otho, discovers a handbook assigned to the Maitlands to help them cope with being ghosts and uses it to hold a séance.
The inexperienced Otho inadvertently begins an exorcism, threatening to destroy the Maitlands' ghosts. Betelgeuse tells a desperate Lydia that he can save the couple if she agrees to marry him, an act that would allow him to stay in the realm of the living permanently. A reluctant Lydia agrees and Betelgeuse rescues the Maitlands. Betelgeuse initiates a wedding ceremony with Lydia, but Barbara and Adam successfully banish him back to the afterlife. The Maitlands and the Deetzes come to a rapport and all live together happily in the house, sharing parenting duties for Lydia.
See main article: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is directed by Tim Burton from a screenplay by the writing team of Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, based on a story by Gough, Millar and Seth Grahame-Smith. Starring Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara, Jenna Ortega, Monica Bellucci and Willem Dafoe, the film was released by Warner Bros. Pictures on September 6, 2024.[3] [4]
Thirty-six years after the first installment's events, Lydia has become the host of a paranormal television show and the Maitlands' ghosts have successfully left their house due to a loophole in the afterlife bureaucracy. After Charles dies in a freak accident, Lydia and her teenage daughter, Astrid, return to Winter River for the funeral. Lydia, still haunted by memories of Betelgeuse, confesses her past to her producer/fiancé Rory, who disbelieves her. Attempting to prove Lydia wrong, he summons Betelgeuse, who has since returned to the afterlife bureaucracy and used his new position to expand his bio-exorcism business. Still obsessed with Lydia, Betelgeuse makes romantic overtures to her, but she refuses.
Betelgeuse's wife, Delores, a medieval witch who tried to steal his soul, escapes her confinement in the afterlife and goes in search of him. Meanwhile, Astrid meets and falls in love with Jeremy, a teenage ghost who claims to have died accidentally falling out of his tree house. Jeremy lures Astrid into the afterlife, claiming to be able to reunite her with the ghost of her father, Richard, who died in a boating accident.
Lydia learns that Jeremy murdered his parents and died in a confrontation with the police. She realizes Jeremy intends to trap Astrid in the afterlife so he can take her place. Lydia summons Betelgeuse, who agrees to save Astrid in exchange for Lydia marrying him. Lydia accepts, and the pair travel to the afterlife together. Betelgeuse intercepts Jeremy as he attempts to swap places with Astrid and sends him to Hell. Lydia and Astrid briefly reunite with Richard's ghost before escaping.
Betelgeuse appears at Lydia's wedding, where he induces Rory to confess he's only marrying Lydia for her money and fame. Delores appears, but Betelgeuse banishes both her and Rory to the afterlife. Betelgeuse tries to marry Lydia in Rory's place, but Astrid finds a clause in the Handbook for the Recently Deceased that invalidates agreements made by ghosts who bring the living into the world of the dead and banishes Betelgeuse back to the afterlife.
See main article: Beetlejuice (TV series). Due to the film's financial success, a Beetlejuice Saturday-morning animated television series was created for ABC and marketed to children and tweens. The series ran for four seasons (the final season airing on Fox), from September 9, 1989, to December 6, 1991. Burton served as the show's developer and executive producer.[5] As opposed to every other franchise entry, here the character's name is both spelled and pronounced as "Beetlejuice".
Because of the demographic shift away from the adult-oriented film, the series re-imagines Lydia as a tween instead of a teenager and Beetlejuice as a friendly prankster whom she summons through her bedroom mirror. Rather than inhabit the afterlife, this iteration of Beetlejuice lives in the "Neitherworld", a fantasy land inhabited by monsters akin to Burton's Halloween Town. Although he refers to himself as "the Ghost with the Most", this Beetlejuice is never depicted as having been a living human, but is rather a creature born in the Neitherworld and whose parents – a similar pair of beings – feature in a few episodes. Beetlejuice additionally has a younger, more popular and polite brother named Donny who admires his elder sibling while eschewing all of his negative traits.
The series heavily relies on pun-based humor and visual gags based on Beetlejuice's ability to transform himself into a variety of monsters, people, and objects. Lydia and Beetlejuice's close-knit friendship is a recurring theme of the series, and the pair frequently find themselves in situations where they must rescue each other from danger. A recurring plot of the series is Lydia summoning Beetlejuice to the real world to help her with some difficulty, especially her ongoing school rivalry with queen bee Claire Brewster. Although he always has Lydia's best interests at heart, Beetlejuice's own selfish and chaotic nature often results in some disaster before he sets things right.
On October 6, 2020, Beetlejuice guest-starred in the Teen Titans Go! episode "Ghost with the Most", which aired as part of the show's sixth season. In this appearance, he was voiced by Alex Brightman, reprising his role from the Beetlejuice Broadway musical.[6]
See main article: List of Beetlejuice video games.
Several comic book series based on the animated television series were published by Harvey Comics in 1991 and 1992. The series were the one-shots Beetlejuice (October 1991), Beetlejuice in the Neitherworld (November 1991), and Beetlejuice Holiday Special (February 1992), and the three-issue Beetlejuice (September—November 1992).
A series of juvenile novels based on the animated television series were published by Aladdin Paperbacks in 1992. The novels were Beetlejuice for President, Lydia's Scream Date, Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare, Twisted Tours, Camp Fright, and Trial by Ghost.[9]
See main article: Beetlejuice (musical). In 2016, work began on a Broadway stage musical adaptation of the film directed by Alex Timbers, produced by Warner Bros., with music and lyrics by Eddie Perfect and book by Scott Brown and Anthony King. The musical was debuted by readings starring Christopher Fitzgerald, Kris Kukul (musical director), and Connor Gallagher (choreographer).[10] It premiered at the National Theatre in Washington, D.C. for a limited run from October 14 to November 18, 2018, with Alex Brightman in the title role.[11]
The production was scheduled to play its final performance at the Winter Garden on June 6, 2020. The producers were unable to find another theater to house the show due to the COVID Broadway shutdown in March 2020. The show reopened at the Marquis Theatre on April 8, 2022, and closed on January 8, 2023,[12] at a financial loss, having been unable to recoup its $21 million investment.[12] Subsequent productions opened across the world, including a North American national tour.
| Character | Films | Television series | Stage musical (original cast) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beetlejuice | Beetlejuice Beetlejuice | Beetlejuice | |||
| Betelgeuse | Michael Keaton | Stephen Ouimette | Alex Brightman | ||
| Lydia Deetz | Winona Ryder | Alyson Court | Sophia Anne Caruso | ||
| Delia Deetz | Catherine O'Hara | Elizabeth Hanna | Leslie Kritzer | ||
| Charles Deetz | Jeffrey Jones | Mark Heenehan Charlie Hopkinson Jeffrey Jones | Roger Dunn | Adam Dannheisser | |
| Adam Maitland | Alec Baldwin | Rob McClure | |||
| Barbara Maitland | Geena Davis | Kerry Butler | |||
| Juno | Sylvia Sidney | Jill Abramovitz | |||
| Miss Argentina | Patrice Martinez | Leslie Kritzer | |||
| Maxie Dean | Robert Goulet | Danny Rutigliano | |||
| Otho Fenlock | Glenn Shadix | Kelvin Moon | |||
| Sarah Dean | Maree Cheatham | ||||
| Jane Butterfield Jr. | Rachel Mittelman | Amy Nuttall | |||
| Astrid Deetz | Jenna Ortega | ||||
| Rory | Justin Theroux[13] | ||||
| Delores | Monica Bellucci | ||||
| Wolf Jackson | Willem Dafoe | ||||
| Father Damien | Burn Gorman | ||||
| Bob | Nick Kellington | ||||
| Jeremy Frazier | Arthur Conti | ||||
| Richard | Santiago Cabrera | ||||
| The Janitor | Danny DeVito | ||||
| Vlad | Filipe Cates | ||||
| Title | Crew/detail | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Composer | Cinematographer | Editors | Production companies | Distributing company | Running time | ||
| Beetlejuice | Danny Elfman | Thomas E. Ackerman | Jane Kurson | The Geffen Film Company | Warner Bros. Pictures | 1 hr 32 mins | |
| Beetlejuice Beetlejuice | Haris Zambarloukos | Jay Prychidny | Plan B Entertainment Tim Burton Productions | 1 hr 45 mins | |||
| Film | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic | CinemaScore | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beetlejuice | 83% (117 reviews)[14] | 71/100 (19 reviews)[15] | B | |
| Beetlejuice Beetlejuice | 77% (350 reviews)[16] | 62/100 (61 reviews)[17] | B+[18] |
| Film | Box office gross | Budget | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| North America | Other territories | Worldwide | ||||
| Beetlejuice | $74,493,906 | $618,753 | $75,112,659 | $15 million | [19] [20] | |
| Beetlejuice Beetlejuice | $294,097,060 | $157,000,000 | $451,097,060 | $100 million | [21] [22] | |
| Totals | $ | $ | $ | $ million | ||