Warner Bros. Execs Explain Maneuvers Tim Burton Made To Ensure ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’s Theatrical Release
deadline.comWhile Tim Burton‘s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is one of Warner Bros‘ biggest theatrical success stories of the year, at over $264 million in worldwide grosses and counting, there was a period in the decade-plus the studio was mulling the sequel in which execs advocated for the film to go straight to streaming on Max.
However, “that was never going to work for Tim,” says Pamela Abdy, Co-Chair of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, in a new interview with the New York Times. “You’re talking about a visionary artist whose films demand to be seen on a big screen.” But while Abdy and Co-Chair Mike De Luca, who assumed the top film posts at Warner Bros in 2022, were highly enthusiastic about getting the Beetlejuice sequel made, they knew its budget would have to come down, for a theatrical release to make sense.
While Burton and team had projected a $147M budget, much of which went to paying cast and producer fees, the filmmaker would need to get the budget to below $100M in order to move forward.
Helping Burton to achieve this was Mike Simpson, his agent at WME, who shared, “Two months went by where every day the movie almost died.” In the end, he was able to get talent and most producers to reduce their upfront payments, in exchange for a bigger piece of the back end, and after some “additional financier maneuvering,” per the Times, pertaining to “tax incentives” and “some cost cuts related to shooting,” the project got off the ground.
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