Betelgeuse just refuses to fade away. After six weeks in theaters, Tim Burton’s supernatural sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, edged past Joker: Folie á Deux to claim third place at the weekend box office, as reported by The Numbers. With $7.3 million in ticket sales, Beetlejuice 2 narrowly surpassed the $7 million second weekend take of the Joker sequel, which suffered an 81.4 percent drop—the steepest decline for a comic book movie to date. The R-rated Terrifier 3, another film about a murderous clown, stole the top spot with $18.8 million, while the animated feature The Wild Robot, new on digital this week, landed in second with $14 million.
Beetlejuice Sequel spent three weeks at No. 1
Since Michael Keaton’s iconic Ghost with the Most returned to theaters on September 6, it spent three solid weeks at No. 1 before being overtaken by The Wild Robot. It slid to third during Joker 2’s debut weekend but quickly bounced back, with both Beetlejuice and Wild Robot reclaiming ground while the Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga-starring Joker sequel plummeted to fourth. Rounding out the top five is Piece by Piece, a new LEGO-animated biopic of Pharrell Williams, which pieced together $3.8 million from 1,865 theaters.
Joker Failing to Break Even
Beetlejuice 2 has now reached $275.8 million domestically ($421 million globally). Its $111 million domestic opening was the second-biggest September debut behind 2017’s It, and it had the second-best second weekend for the month at $51.3 million, proving the 36-year-old franchise still has plenty of life. Originally considered for a direct-to-streaming release, Beetlejuice 2 went on to be a theatrical success with a modest production cost of $99 million.
Meanwhile, Joker: Folie á Deux, with a budget nearly triple that of the original at $190 million, seems likely to close out with around $65 million domestically and $210 million globally, falling far short of the $500 million needed to break even. While a third Joker movie is now off the table, say his name three times, and it just might be Beetlejuice that gets another sequel.
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