Beetlejuice sequel receives a three-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival

The much-anticipated sequel to Beetlejuicehas received a three-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice opened the festival to overwhelming praise. The appreciative cast, including Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara and Jenna Ortega took a bow following the screening.

The sequel has been 36-years in the making. The original movie, also starring Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin, was released in 1988.

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Beetlejuice Beetlejuice sees the return of Keaton, Ryder and O'Hara along with fresh faces including Ortega, Monica Bellucci, Justin Theroux and Willem Dafoe.

The sequel follows the return of the Deetz family to the home.

This time Ryder's character, previously the rebellious teenage daughter, is a mother. Ortega plays her daughter.

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Both movies have been directed by Tim Burton, who has collaborated with Ryder in Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands and Frankenweenie.

The sequel to Beetlejuice is expected to earn up to $US80 million (approx. $117 million) in it's opening weekend scheduled for the weekend of September 6.

The movie opens in Australia on the weekend of September 5.

The project took decades to get off the ground. Scripts for a sequel were written as early as 1990 before it was shelved.

It was worked on once again in 2011 but didn't see any real progress until 2022 when the project was formally announced.

Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment production company teamed up with Warner Bros. for the sequel.

Burton told Variety Beetlejuice Beetlejuice had saved him from retirement.

"I thought that could have been it, really. I could have retired, or become… well, I wouldn't have become an animator again," he said.

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"But this did reenergise me. Oftentimes, when you get into Hollywood, you try to be responsible to what you're doing with the budget and everything else but sometimes you might lose yourself a little bit," he said.

"This reinforced the feeling for me that it's important that I do what I want to do, because then everybody will benefit."

And it seems his hard work has paid off judging from the incredible response at Venice.

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