‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ scares up $145m to dominate worldwide box office; ‘Alien: Romulus’ helps Disney pass $4bn

Worldwide box office September 6 - 8

Credit: Comscore. All figures are estimates.

’Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ gets autumn season off to strong start

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice burst into the global marketplace this weekend, opening with an estimated $145.4m from 70 markets and providing a strong start to the autumn box office season. 

Reuniting director Tim Burton with stars Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder 36 years after 1988’s original Beetlejuice, the Warner Bros horror comedy tapped into nostalgia for what has become a seasonal home-viewing favourite. And new cast member Jenna Ortega, from streaming hit Wednesday, helped attract younger audiences to the film’s three-decades-later story, scripted for Burton by Wednesday showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. 

In North America the sequel met the most optimistic expectations with an estimated first-weekend haul of $110m from 4,575 screens, the second biggest September opening ever (topped only by the $123.4m taken in 2017 by It). The debut was also the second biggest ever for Burton, whose 2010 smash Alice In Wonderland began with $116.1m (not adjusted for inflation) and went on to reach $1.03bn worldwide. 

The original Beetlejuice opened in March 1988 with an $8m domestic weekend and ended its initial run with a worldwide total of $73.7m, almost all of it from North America. 

Internationally, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice opened in 69 territories – representing 75% of the marketplace – this weekend and amassed $35.4m from 16,445 screens. In the UK, the sequel dominated with $9.6m from 1,435 screens, Warner reported, capturing 58% of the entire market and roughly matching the opening of Burton’s 2005 hit Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. 

In other chart-topping openings, the sequel took $6.5m from 3,377 screens in Mexico, $2.6m from 320 screens in Australia and $2.5m from 707 screens in Spain. In Italy it took $1.7m from 600 screens, narrowly missing out on the top chart slot. 

‘Alien: Romulus’ leads powerful Disney trio

With no other major global releases arriving as the summer season winds down, holdovers occupy the rest of the top half of this weekend’s Comscore global chart.

Alien: Romulus, chart topper for the previous three weekends, came in a distant second, grossing $17.6m worldwide for a total to date of $314.4m, $217.2m of it from international markets and $97.2m from North America. 

The sci-fi franchise entry opened in Japan, its final international market, with $2.3m, coming second only to a local film. In China it dropped only 49% in its fourth weekend to $4.5m, for an estimated market total to date of $100.6m, the second biggest Chinese tally for a US studio title this year. 

Alien: Romulus is one of three films still in the global top 10 that have helped Disney become the first US studio this year to reach a $4bn aggregate worldwide gross. In third place this weekend, the studio’s Deadpool & Wolverine was down only 43% in its seventh weekend with $15.6m, for a worldwide total of $1.29bn. And Pixar’s Inside Out 2 came in eighth with $4.8m, down only 46% in its thirteenth weekend, for a $1.7bn worldwide tally.

‘Reagan’ makes chart debut, ‘The Front Room’ disappoints

After opening last weekend but not appearing in a truncated global chart, Reagan takes sixth spot on this weekend’s chart with a $5.2m gross from six territories for an $18.5m worldwide total to date. The biopic of actor turned US president Ronald Reagan, distributed domestically by ShowBiz Direct, did the vast majority of its business in North America, managing only $9,740 from its five other markets. 

Chinese action crime outing Go For Broke reappears on the global chart this weekend in seventh spot, with a $4.9m gross from its home market. That takes the film to a $52.7m total gross to date. 

Amazon MGM Studios’ Blink Twice is back in ninth spot after taking $4.2m from 69 markets for a total so far of $38.5m. 

Making its first appearance on the global chart two weeks after its launch is The Forge, an inspirational drama, distributed by Sony’s faith-based label Affirm Films, from filmmaking brothers Alex and Stephen Kendrick. Most of the film’s weekend gross of $3.2m (for a total to date of $21.6m) came from North America, with ten other territories contributing a modest $262,130. 

This weekend’s only other wide North American release, A24’s The Front Room, made a disappointing start, grossing an estimated $1.7m from 2,095 domestic screens and failing to make the global top ten. The horror thriller stars singer and actor Brandy Norwood and is the directing debut of brothers Max and Sam Eggers. 

Also outside the top ten, Laika’s stop-motion animated tale Coraline continued its successful 15^th anniversary re-release, reaching a total of $32.1m from the US and $18.3m from international markets, for a global tally of $50.4m. Launches in France and Italy are still to come.