Beetlejuice at the Box Office…It’s Showtime!

After 30 years, is Burton's Ghost-with-the-Most still a hit?

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice has proven that fans are willing to wait a long time for a sequel. So far, the film has earned a whopping $188 million at the box office and is holding its number one spot. However, even with all of this success, not everyone seems stoked about the new film.

The reason for this is straight forward enough. Many of the people who witnessed the awesomeness of Beetlejuice were children when they first watched the film. And in turn, they showed the movie to their own children as they got older. This family friendly romp is the perfect introductory film into the world of horror.

It’s Showtime! - Beetlejuice

Now, some thirty years later, we finally got a sequel, but it doesn’t live up to the legendary status of the original film. However, if we think about it for just a moment, it is easy to understand that was never going to happen. Times have changed, and actors, themes, and pop culture have all changed. The fact that we received this movie at all should be seen as a blessing, but some people are still pining for a film that will never exist.

It has been made clear that millennials hold on to their nostalgia films more tightly than other generations. That’s why we keep getting all of these reboots and call backs to our childhoods. And while many films are content to use this as a way to generate profit, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice seemed to be genuine in its approach to please the fans.

The film features ninety percent of the original cast and doesn’t make any major changes to the characters. Most of the themes and gags are still present throughout and it relies on the same vulture humor as before. Not only that, but we get some awesome additions to the lore and mythos of the afterlife.

Is it a perfect film? No. I will admit that it is overburdened with subplots and becomes needlessly complicated. That being said, it is still a great introductory horror for younger audiences. Which we should remember, is the target audience of these films. Some of us may even be old enough to recall that the original Beetlejuice received the cartoon treatment for younger viewers.

Now, it could be worse. People are not review bombing or boycotting the film as they have done with other beloved classics. I’m looking at you Star Wars fans. However, I believe that all of this shows that people should have honest conversations about a film's legacy and how to approach any future adaptations of this work.

The main reason for this is that it is unlikely to stop happening in the future. Like it or not, if something is profitable, it will encourage imitation. And as we have seen countless times in the past, not all of the new content is worth investing our time and energy in. That being said, we should probably applaud the films that are at least trying to entertain us instead of just profiting off the media of our childhoods.

For those of us who Beetlejuice had a large impact on our goth aesthetic as teenagers, the film may be a mild letdown. However, it is only fair to let the new generation bask in the glory that is the wonderful world of Beetlejuice. At the very least, it will be fun to watch them grab all the new purple and green makeup at Hot Topic just like we did so many years ago.