How Warner Bros. Discovery and Fever Brought ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice: The Afterlife’ Experience to Life

Warner Bros. Discovery Global Themed Entertainment and Fever have teamed up to bring the world of Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” to life in a new Los Angeles-based experience. “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice: The Afterlife” Experience opened Aug. 23 at Ovation Hollywood. The 11,000-square-foot experience opened in anticipation of “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” the sequel to the original film, which will open in theaters Sept. 6. Featuring recreated sets, live entertainment and various photo ops, guests knock three times to reveal the portal to cross the threshold into the Afterlife, where Beetlejuice awaits alongside a cast of ghosts. Fans can grab an exclusive passport and take a seat in the Waiting Room next to a pair of ghosts, take their place on the cover of the “Handbook for the Recently Deceased,” come face to face with a sandworm and much more. The experience features themed product demos from NYX and Splat, food and beverage offerings from Fanta, Butterfinger Denny’s and a selection of limited-edition merchandise and collectibles inspired by the film’s imagery. Food is available at The Afterlife Diner for ticketed guests, and merchandise will be available at the Afterlife souvenir shop for ticketed and non-ticketed guests. The experience is open until Oct. 6, but ticket sales have led to discussions of an extension – and a possible tour. 

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"Beetlejuice Beetlejuice": The Afterlife Experience's attic set recreation. Credit: Fever.

License Global attended the experience and sat down with two of the minds behind the experience: Kathleen Wallis, vice president, global themed entertainment, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Sofia Altuna, team lead, U.S. Originals, Fever, to learn more. 

License Global: How did this partnership come to be, and what inspired the creation of this experience? 

Kathleen Wallis: Our theatrical department, Warner Bros. Pictures, reached out to my team, which is global themed entertainment at Warner Bros. Discovery, and said they’d love to create an immersive experience, which they’ve done for a lot of the big tentpole movies in the past. They were thinking bigger this time with “Beetlejuice.” They reached out to us and asked how we could do a bigger experience that could run longer. I instantly thought of Fever because they are our premier partner, and we have four different experiences in the works with them. They have a global presence and are an all-around excellent team. This project is unique in that usually we just have a license with a partner, and we develop the experience, but we had a very close collaboration with theatrical. We had access to all the film reference, the props and costumes, and that made a big difference in elevating the whole experience, and being able to deliver a very authentic, immersive experience for fans. It was a very smooth process. We really refer to it as the dream team. Whenever we had an issue, we just got on the phone and said, “Okay, what’s important to you? What do you think?” and solved it. Usually, these things are minimum 12 months, and we like to have 18 months. 

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Sofia Altuna: When Kathleen came to us with the project, we had our creative team fly out to LA to come see the movie, and then we started working from there. It’s been amazing how throughout the project, between our teams, we’ve had our partners across many different departments, and you always find people that are very, very excited about this IP. It’s been a work of love from so many people. We’re very excited about the movie coming out, and that we got to integrate not only the things that would appear more obvious but throughout the experience, there are a lot of details that are very subtle that come from people that are really fans that are building out this experience. Building experiences is not always easy, and this one, surprisingly, was, even though we built it in such a short time. We started in March. Normally, things could get delayed, but we didn’t have that luxury because we had the movie premiering on Sept. 6, so we wanted to open sooner. 

What makes the “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice”: The Afterlife Experience different from other location-based experiences, and how have you integrated other licensed goods and promotions? 

SA: For this experience, we wanted to bring together many different elements. You’ll notice that there is a lot of live entertainment. We have ten actors in the Afterlife, ghosts, and that has been one of my favorite things. We also have a lot of set recreations and a lot of moments for a good photo opportunity. We have a full diner, where we have food and people can come and stay here for a while. It’s an experience for families, for people of all ages. We’ve seen that people that are passionate about the original “Beetlejuice” that came out in 1988, want to bring their kids, and so we created a space that even though some horror is involved, it’s good for people of all ages. I think you get a lot of different things in this experience. 

KW: I would say the actors have made a huge difference. Having 10 actors in this size space is amazing, and they’re all so talented. As Sophia said, the food for an experience of this size is usually very limited. What we’ve seen over the last few days is that people are really enjoying the food. They’re sitting down, having dinner, and Denny’s is doing some of the food; two of the menu items for our collaboration at the restaurant are here at the experience: Beetlejuice-y Sliders and The Cookies and Scream. The food at the restaurant was just announced, and it’s a nationwide promotion. 

SA: In the Beauty Salon section of the experience, we have the Nyx and Splat “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” products. The sponsorships have been wonderful for this, and we’ve integrated it very naturally into the space.  

KW: Fanta is a global sponsor of the movie, and I think the “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” soda cans at the bar are going to be gone from retail. They’re a real collector’s item. 

Bob and Jeff photo opportunity at "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice": The Afterlife Experience. Credit: License Global.

Will fans of the original “Beetlejuice” recognize the space even if they haven’t seen the sequel yet? 

SA: There are a lot of elements from the original film, like the iconic waiting room, but in the waiting room we have some new characters: the anaconda man and the contortionist that you’ll be able to see in the new film. We have a shrinker, which appears in the original film, Beetlejuice’s tombstone, his bioexorcism business and the attic. 

KW: Not to mention Betelgeuse himself! The other thing that’s unique is that the Fever creative team took small elements, like a newspaper in the new movie, and used them here. 

SA: The Afterlife Times, it appears for seconds in the new movie, and the newspaper has ads for different businesses: a salon and a “horrorscopist.” These may not be things you recognize in the new film. They’re subtle details that both of our creative teams put together that aren’t technically even in the film. And the horrorscopist has been one of the most popular experiences. The actors have been one of the biggest things that people have been highlighting. It’s been fun to see how some of those elements have performed well already. 

What has fan feedback been like on this experience, especially since the film has yet to launch? What else should fans know before they attend? 

SA: It’s been fun to hear how being in this experience has made people even more excited for the movie, and at the end of the experience we have an amazing merch shop that is not only open to people that are coming through the experience, but to anyone that wants to come in to buy some merch. We’re excited for people to come in and step into the world of Afterlife. Tickets can be bought on Beetlejuiceexperience.com. 

KW: And we’re excited for the movie, which is opening on Sept. 6 nationwide, and in IMAX.