By Kaitlyn Huamani
LOS ANGELES (AP) --After 36 years of waiting, the juice is finally loose again in “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” this time racking up $110 million in its premiere weekend.
The long-awaited Tim Burton sequel is the third-best opening weekend of the year, only behind box office triumphs “Inside Out 2” and “Deadpool & Wolverine.”
Michael Keaton returns as the titular spirit and Catherine O’Hara and Winona Ryder also reprise their roles as Delia and Lydia Deetz, with newcomer Jenna Ortega playing the latter’s daughter, Astrid. Willem Dafoe, Monica Bellucci and Justin Theroux round out the cast.
The Warner Bros. sequel is the second-highest grossing September movie of all time, only behind 2017’s “It,” which opened with a staggering $123 million. The 2019 sequel “It Chapter 2” opened with $91 million and previously held the No. 2 spot for September openings.
The original “Beetlejuice” film earned a mere $8 million in its opening weekend in 1988, unadjusted for inflation, but went on to make $77 million in theaters domestically as it became a cult classic.
Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore, said September is “not known as a hotbed of $100 million blockbuster debuts,” but attributed part of the film’s success to Burton’s singular style and the star cast.
In addition to the returning cast, Ortega, who starred in the Netflix series “Wednesday” about the Addams family character, likely brought in younger audiences.
“If all this was were a nostalgia play for people who saw the first movie, it wouldn’t really necessarily work,” Dergarabedian said. “Part of the magic formula of ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ is having a great cast of a revered generation of actors and then having young actors who are making their own mark.”
The electric opening weekend kicks off the fall movie season with a bang after a sleepy Labor Day weekend and a relatively slow August that saw newer films struggle as holdover movies ruled the box office.
Beyond “Beetlejuice,” “Deadpool & Wolverine” placed second on the box office charts, making $7.2 million in its seventh weekend. Its cumulative domestic total is now $614 million.
“Reagan,” the Dennis Quaid-led biopic about the 40th U.S. president, continues to beat expectations. Climbing the ranks to third place in its second weekend, the film made $5.2 million.
“Alien: Romulus” and “It Ends With Us,” two more holdovers from the summer, came in fourth and fifth place, respectively. The sci-fi horror film brought in $3.9 million and the romance drama brought in $3.8 million.
The only other new release of the weekend to make it on the box office rankings was “The Greatest of All Time,” an Indian Tamil-language science fiction action film. The movie stars Joseph Vijay and was directed by Venkat Prabhu, who is known for directing and writing other Indian action films.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” $110 million.
2. “Deadpool & Wolverine,” $7.2 million.
3. “Reagan,” $5.2 million.
4. “Alien: Romulus,” $3.9 million.
5. “It Ends With Us,” $3.8 million
6. “The Forge,” $2.9 million.
7. “Twisters,” $2.3 million.
8. “Blink Twice,” $2.1 million.
9. “The Greatest of All Time,” $2 million.
10. “Despicable Me 4,” $1.8 million.
Carrie Coon Relishes Being Part Of An Ensemble–From “The Gilded Age” To “His Three Daughters”
It can be hard to catch Carrie Coon on her own.
She is far more likely to be found in the thick of an ensemble. That could be on TV, in "The Gilded Age," for which she was just Emmy nominated, or in the upcoming season of "The White Lotus," which she recently shot in Thailand. Or it could be in films, most relevantly, Azazel Jacobs' new drama, "His Three Daughters," in which Coon stars alongside Natasha Lyonne and Elizabeth Olsen as sisters caring for their dying father.
But on a recent, bright late-summer morning, Coon is sitting on a bench in the bucolic northeast Westchester town of Pound Ridge. A few years back, she and her husband, the playwright Tracy Letts, moved near here with their two young children, drawn by the long rows of stone walls and a particularly good BLT from a nearby cafe that Letts, after biting into, declared must be within 15 miles of where they lived.
In a few days, they would both fly to Los Angeles for the Emmys (Letts was nominated for his performance in "Winning Time" ). But Coon, 43, was then largely enmeshed in the day-to-day life of raising a family, along with their nightly movie viewings, which Letts pulls from his extensive DVD collection. The previous night's choice: "Once Around," with Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfus.
Coon met Letts during her breakthrough performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?" on Broadway in 2012. She played the heavy-drinking housewife Honey. It was the first role that Coon read and knew, viscerally, she had to play. Immediately after saying this, Coon sighs.
"It sounds like something some diva would say in a movie from the '50s," Coon says. "I just walked around in my apartment in my slip and I had pearls and a little brandy. I made a grocery list and I just did... Read More