BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE | THE FRONT ROOM openings | September moviegoing overview | September 6 to 8, 2024 weekend
Opening weekend box office, charts and commentary
The current weekend: September 6 to 8, 2024
1) Beetlejuice Beetlejuice opening
- This is a sensational opening for a comedy sequel 36 years after the first film. In 1988, Beetlejuice was an offbeat story that started slowly and over subsequent weeks became a hit. This time, audiences know what to expect and it's a mainstream smash.
We don't have figures from 1988 on what the first film did overseas. It was Tim Burton's second movie after Pee Wee Herman and before Batman. But this Beetlejuice is off to a very good foreign start:
- This is the fifth recent series that’s come roaring back after a long layoff. Twisters did it this summer (28 years after the first film); Wonka did it in December after 18 years; Top Gun did it in 2022 after 32 years; and Bad Boys for Life did it in 2020 after 16 years. Not all of them outperformed the previous film in the series (Twisters and Bad Boys finished under), but all of them have done extremely well.
2) The Front Room opening
- This is a weak opening for a single-episode horror film. Critics' reviews are lukewarm and audience scores are flat (a C- CinemaScore):
Currently, there are 28 wide release horror pics scheduled through the end of 2024, and we wouldn’t be surprised if one or two more drop onto the calendar by the end of the year. During the previous seven years, there were no more than 21 titles per year. Are we getting to a point of saturation? We’ll see next weekend with Speak No Evil.
3) September moviegoing overview
- September is the low month of the moviegoing year. There are going to be quiet weekends like we had over Labor Day, but there’s still plenty of room for big movies.
When it finishes, Beetlejuice #2 is going to be the #1 or #2 all-time biggest picture of September (Stephen King’s It finished with $329m domestic and $700m worldwide). It's a great start to the fall:
Speak No Evil and Transformers One open over the next two weekends. We’re in a different season now, but the big September titles should be able to keep pace with pre-pandemic box office levels — that would be a very good result.
