Beetlejuice Beetlejuice summoned a stellar opening weekend to kick off the new season, beating expectations with its $111M debut in the US market and becoming the second highest ever opening weekend for September (behind 2017’s IT).

With such an out-performance of most box office predictions, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice looks to be a valuable big screen draw. Today, drawing insights from the Behind the Screens podcast with Vista Group’s Head of Strategic Services for Client Success, Lauren Greene, we’re uncovering the audience behind the success, and discovering how cinemas can amplify the excellent performance with the right marketing approaches.

Finding four-quadrant appeal

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice has strong elements to achieve the much-sought four-quadrant appeal, with draws of nostalgia and modern appeal for both under-25 moviegoers and over-25 moviegoers across all genders. Striking especially well with the nostalgic older audience who know and love the original, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice saw audiences over-index across the broad 25-54 age range—with moviegoers aged 35-44 in particular comprising 28% of the audience, compared to a benchmark of 16% for all movies on their opening weekend.

As Lauren Greene noted on Behind the Screens, there is a significant draw from Jenna Ortega as a star for younger moviegoers. With two successful Scream instalments and the Wednesday streaming series growing her popularity, her star power makes for a promising opportunity to market Beetlejuice Beetlejuice to younger audiences and boost their attendance. Similarly to her co-star, Winona Ryder’s recognition has grown beyond returning audiences, with young audiences recognising her well from Netflix’s Stranger Things.

With great promotion of both Jenna Ortega and Winona Ryder talking about their favourite films, highlighting the right elements of the film's cast has become a great marketing opportunity.

Frequency and the impact of National Cinema Day

In the US market, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice drew a primarily Infrequent* audience at 36% of the opening weekend audience compared to a benchmark of 27% for all movies. Highly Infrequent audiences are always a good indication for a film’s success; blockbusters and break-out films draw these audiences off the couch to the cinema, and similarly to four-quadrant appeal, Infrequent moviegoers are a must for generating big box office results.

The UK, which was the top performing international audience for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, saw curiously different results. Rather than over-indexing with Infrequent moviegoers, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice under-indexed with this audience.

“Part of this could probably be attributed to the fact it was National Cinema Day the previous weekend in the UK,” Lauren pointed out on this week’s Behind the Screen’s episode. With a high infrequent turnout for the event weekend, it is possible the boost of frequency might have tipped moviegoers into the next bracket of Occasional moviegoers—which then reflected on Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’s audience.

For the UK, National Cinema Day offers a strong marketing possibility to keep the momentum of those lower frequency moviegoers. Targeting moviegoers who came out for National Cinema Day—and particularly targeting families, who turned out in big numbers for the event—could boost attendance for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice in the coming weeks while it likely remains the biggest movie in cinemas.

Families and formats to focus

Families didn’t just turn out for the UK’s National Cinema Day; they’re already the key audience for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Age demographics for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’s opening weekend across the board point to plenty of parents taking their children. Coupled with a high rate of group attendance, with more than a third (36%) of the audience attending in groups of 3 or more, compared to a benchmark of 27%, families make for a strong marketing opportunity to drive more box office for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

Lastly, both PLF and IMAX formats out-performed throughout Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’s opening weekend. Among groups, as much as 26% of the audience attended either IMAX or another premium format, compared to a 10% benchmark. With few titles until Transformers One and Joker: Folie à Deux to compete with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice for premium screens, promoting these screenings and marketing towards moviegoers who show a propensity towards premium formats could keep this proportion high in the next few weeks.

There’s much more to our audience breakdown and further marketing recommendations for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice—including comparable titles, tapping into eventization, and promotions cinemas are doing right now—waiting for you on this week’s episode of Behind the Screens. Tune in below to discover them all.

*Frequency is based on a moviegoers' six-month session count:

< 2 = Infrequent
2-5 = Occasional
6-25 = Frequent
26+ = Very Frequent