Michael Keaton Doesn’t Want to Be a Coffee Mug, but Beetlejuice Is Now a Used-Car Salesman and a Soda Flavor
Michael Keaton absolutely loves the Beetlejuice character. What he does not love is seeing it everywhere. “Fucking weird,” as he recently told Empire Magazine of the relentless merchandising. He added, of rediscovering the character: “I don’t want to look like all these little things, fuck that — what was the thing that started this?”
Well, Warner Bros. Pictures has been promoting the hell out of that thing with “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” the highly anticipated sequel to Tim Burton’s 1988 film. Tracking to an $80 million opening, it has the potential to be one of the box-office breakouts of 2024. And with $37.5 billion in debt, Warner Bros. Discovery could sure use the money.
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Opening September 6, “Beetlejuice 2” has the usual merch: hoodies, Funkos, etc. There’s a Oujia board (which makes more sense than the Beetlejuice Monopoly). It’s also getting in on the popcorn-bucket trend with theater-chain-specific collectible containers and surely the title character will again be one of the hot Halloween costumes.
And then there’s the Fanta with a “Beetlejuice” soft drink (“a taste of the afterlife,” per a press release; yum?) courtesy of the Coca-Cola company. Or for the kids, there is “Beetlejuice” the Roblox activation, in which you can buy (real) tickets for the film at a (virtual) Fandango.
Warner Bros. is also looking to generate excitement with “Beetlejuice” TV spots for Progressive Insurance and CarMax.
For this viewer, the “BeetleMax, BeetleMax, BeetleMax” ad is… confusing. In an email to IndieWire, a CarMax rep described its campaign as “a playful approach to what car buying should not be — a sharp contrast to CarMax’s commitment to providing a trustworthy and enjoyable car-buying experience for the whole family, the way car buying should be.”
Geez, is everything fair game for “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” marketing? Apparently, yes. If you have a winning idea for cross-promotion, just submit it to marketingpartnerships.com, where you can connect with the studios’ global partnerships team on the Beetlejuice 2 “opportunity.”
Stop us if this all starts to sound like a “Spaceballs” gag, but it was Mel Brooks’ Yogurt who said, “Merchandising! Merchandising! Where the real money from the movie is made.”
“Partnerships of this level are a testament to the studios and the marketplace’s belief in the film,” a Warner Bros. studio spokesperson told IndieWire for this story. “Tim Burton and Michael Keaton created an indelible character in Beetlejuice who has endured as a cultural icon for decades and remains one to this day.”
The founder of Los Angeles-based outdoor-advertising firm Kevani, which is responsible for a number of the city’s most massive digital billboards, empathizes with Warners’ position.
“The reality is times have changed and the way people consume media has changed since the original film,” Kevani’s Kevin Bartanian told IndieWire. “We’re seeing more of these movies and brand partnerships on a bigger scale than we were previously. Brands can capitalize on the fandom of cult-classic movies like ‘Beetlejuice.'”
Warner Bros. only has to look back one summer to find success from another piece of offbeat IP.
“If we take the ‘Barbie’ movie, for example, they had over 100 brand partnerships and these served to highlight both the brands involved and created more buzz around the movie,” Bartanian said. “These were partnerships that built excitement rather than detracted from the experience. When done well these partnerships create a synergy that can excite consumers and elicit a positive connection with the brand to a particular cinema experience.”
IndieWire reached out to Keaton’s reps with a request for comment, but we did not hear back. We also reached out to Burton’s reps, but did not receive a response.
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