Box Office: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Tracking for One of the Biggest September Openings of All Time

It's showtime: Beetlejuice 2 is projected to open with upwards of $80 million at the September box office.

By Cameron Bonomolo

The Ghost with the Most is set to make the most at the September box office. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice — director Tim Burton's long-awaited scarequel to his 1988 original starring Michael Keaton in the title role — is tracking for an $80 million domestic opening weekend when it hits theaters on September 6th. According to numbers posted by insights and tracking firm National Research Group, the Beetlejuice sequel also starring Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara, and Jenna Ortega is poised for one of the biggest September debuts ever.

Studio Warner Bros. is expecting a first weekend of $65m—$75 million, according to Deadline, which would still give Beetlejuice 2 one of the best-ever openings for the month and the biggest opening for a PG-13 movie since 2021. 

The R-rated It (2017) is No. 1 with $123.4 million, followed by 2019's It: Chapter Two with $91 million. Marvel Studios' PG-13 superhero movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings — which opened with $75 million over the four-day Labor Day weekend in a pandemic-stricken 2021, breaking the record set by 2007's Halloween — is third, but will drop to fourth place should Keaton's trickster demon conjure up the higher end of projections.

Alongside Keaton and other returning cast members Ryder as Lydia Deetz and O'Hara as the newly widowed Delia Deetz are Ortega (Burton's Wednesday) as Lydia's daughter, Astrid, Justin Theroux (The Leftovers) as Lydia's husband, Rory, Monica Bellucci (The Matrix films) as Beetlejuice's ex-wife Delores, Arthur Conti (House of the Dragon) in his feature film debut, Danny DeVito (Batman Returns) in an undisclosed role, and Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man: No Way Home) as the dead detective Wolf Jackson.

36 years after the "bio-exorcist" was first summoned in the home once owned and haunted by the late Maitlands (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis), Beetlejuice Beetlejuice takes place in the wake of an unexpected family tragedy: the death of Deetz patriarch Charles (Jeffrey Jones). 

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Three generations of the Deetz family return home to Winter River, where Lydia — who is still haunted by Betelgeuse — has her life turned upside down when her rebellious teenage daughter discovers the mysterious model of the town in the attic and the portal to the Afterlife is accidentally opened. With trouble brewing in both realms, it's only a matter of time until someone says Beetlejuice's name three times and the mischievous demon returns to unleash his very own brand of mayhem.

Warner Bros. summons Beetlejuice Beetlejuice from the Neitherworld and into theaters on September 6th.

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