Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” has grossed $264 million and more at the global box office within two weeks of release, making it a huge success not only for the director and his cast, but also for Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group co-chairmen Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy. The duo took over the film studio in 2022, and the highly anticipated “Beetlejuice” sequel will mark their first Warner Bros. film to be made entirely under their supervision, from development to release.

“Dancing in the hallways, smiles on faces,” De Luca recently told The New York Times of his reaction to the sequel’s success. “There’s really nothing better for morale than a hit.”

Burton and the studio had ideas for a “Beetlejuice” sequel for more than a decade (it’s widely reported that one of the scrapped ideas was “Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian”), and according to The Times, there was a point during development when the studio tried to make “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” a streaming exclusive on Max.

“That would never work for Tim,” Abdy said of making the “Beetlejuice” sequel for streaming. “You’re talking about a visionary artist whose films need to be seen on the big screen.”

The big issue between Burton and the studio was that the projected budget for “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” was at one point around $147 million, largely due to “star salaries and producer fees.” That’s when De Luca and Abdy approached Burton and said he could release the sequel exclusively in theaters as long as he could keep the budget under $100 million. They worked together to greenlight “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” for $99 million, with Burton and cast members Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Jenna Ortega and Catherine O’Hara agreeing to less money up front but significant deals at the end that will surely pay off now that the sequel is a box office success.

“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” has since topped the domestic box office for two weekends in a row, grossing just over $50 million in its second weekend of release. The film is set to soon surpass the $200 million mark in the U.S. To read more about De Luca and Abdy’s development of the film, visit The Times’ website.