By Kaitlyn Huamani
LOS ANGELES (AP) --After 36 years of waiting, the juice is finally loose again in “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” this time racking up $110 million in its premiere weekend.
The long-awaited Tim Burton sequel is the third-best opening weekend of the year, only behind box office triumphs “Inside Out 2” and “Deadpool & Wolverine.”
Michael Keaton returns as the titular spirit and Catherine O’Hara and Winona Ryder also reprise their roles as Delia and Lydia Deetz, with newcomer Jenna Ortega playing the latter’s daughter, Astrid. Willem Dafoe, Monica Bellucci and Justin Theroux round out the cast.
The Warner Bros. sequel is the second-highest grossing September movie of all time, only behind 2017’s “It,” which opened with a staggering $123 million. The 2019 sequel “It Chapter 2” opened with $91 million and previously held the No. 2 spot for September openings.
The original “Beetlejuice” film earned a mere $8 million in its opening weekend in 1988, unadjusted for inflation, but went on to make $77 million in theaters domestically as it became a cult classic.
Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore, said September is “not known as a hotbed of $100 million blockbuster debuts,” but attributed part of the film’s success to Burton’s singular style and the star cast.
In addition to the returning cast, Ortega, who starred in the Netflix series “Wednesday” about the Addams family character, likely brought in younger audiences.
“If all this was were a nostalgia play for people who saw the first movie, it wouldn’t really necessarily work,” Dergarabedian said. “Part of the magic formula of ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ is having a great cast of a revered generation of actors and then having young actors who are making their own mark.”
The electric opening weekend kicks off the fall movie season with a bang after a sleepy Labor Day weekend and a relatively slow August that saw newer films struggle as holdover movies ruled the box office.
Beyond “Beetlejuice,” “Deadpool & Wolverine” placed second on the box office charts, making $7.2 million in its seventh weekend. Its cumulative domestic total is now $614 million.
“Reagan,” the Dennis Quaid-led biopic about the 40th U.S. president, continues to beat expectations. Climbing the ranks to third place in its second weekend, the film made $5.2 million.
“Alien: Romulus” and “It Ends With Us,” two more holdovers from the summer, came in fourth and fifth place, respectively. The sci-fi horror film brought in $3.9 million and the romance drama brought in $3.8 million.
The only other new release of the weekend to make it on the box office rankings was “The Greatest of All Time,” an Indian Tamil-language science fiction action film. The movie stars Joseph Vijay and was directed by Venkat Prabhu, who is known for directing and writing other Indian action films.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
1. “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” $110 million.
2. “Deadpool & Wolverine,” $7.2 million.
3. “Reagan,” $5.2 million.
4. “Alien: Romulus,” $3.9 million.
5. “It Ends With Us,” $3.8 million
6. “The Forge,” $2.9 million.
7. “Twisters,” $2.3 million.
8. “Blink Twice,” $2.1 million.
9. “The Greatest of All Time,” $2 million.
10. “Despicable Me 4,” $1.8 million.
Changing OpenAI’s Nonprofit Structure Would Raise Questions and Heightened Scrutiny
The artificial intelligence maker OpenAI may face a costly and inconvenient reckoning with its nonprofit origins even as its valuation recently exploded to $157 billion.
Nonprofit tax experts have been closely watching OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, since last November when its board ousted and rehired CEO Sam Altman. Now, some believe the company may have reached — or exceeded — the limits of its corporate structure, under which it is organized as a nonprofit whose mission is to develop artificial intelligence to benefit "all of humanity" but with for-profit subsidiaries under its control.
Jill Horwitz, a professor in law and medicine at UCLA School of Law who has studied OpenAI, said that when two sides of a joint venture between a nonprofit and a for-profit come into conflict, the charitable purpose must always win out.
"It's the job of the board first, and then the regulators and the court, to ensure that the promise that was made to the public to pursue the charitable interest is kept," she said.
Altman recently confirmed that OpenAI is considering a corporate restructure but did not offer any specifics. A source told The Associated Press, however, that the company is looking at the possibility of turning OpenAI into a public benefit corporation. No final decision has been made by the board and the timing of the shift hasn't been determined, the source said.
In the event the nonprofit loses control of its subsidiaries, some experts think OpenAI may have to pay for the interests and assets that had belonged to the nonprofit. So far, most observers agree OpenAI has carefully orchestrated its relationships between its nonprofit and its various other corporate entities to try to avoid that.
However, they also see... Read More