Beetlejuice and Corpse Bride are surging on streaming. Both movies were directed by Tim Burton (he co-directed the latter with Mike Johnson), who made his feature debut with 1985’s Pee-wee’s Big Adventure and quickly became known for his darkly whimsical sensibility. Some of the most prominent Tim Burton movies in this vein include Edward Scissorhands and Frankenweenie.
Now, the HBO Max Top 10 movies chart for the day is being dominated by two of his works. The 2005 stop-motion animated feature Corpse Bride is No. 4 on the chart, behind only the slasher crossover smash Freddy vs. Jason, the 2025 horror effort Bring Her Back, and the new James Gunn comic book movie Superman.
1988’s Beetlejuice is only slightly behind, trailing Corpse Bride at No. 7. That тιтle is also officially the oldest release in the Top 10.
This streaming success makes sense, because Halloween is coming up. The holiday tends to give a boost to the horror genre throughout all of October as audiences seek out themed viewing in honor of the season. Family-friendly horror like both of Burton’s surging movies are especially sought-after.
In fact, of the eight horror and horror-adjacent тιтles in the current HBO Max Top 10, only half are rated R (Bring Her Back, Freddy vs. Jason, 2009’s Friday the 13th, and Trick ‘r Treat), while the remainder (2002’s Scooby-Doo, Practical Magic, and the Burton movies) are more family-oriented.
The only other non-horror movie on the HBO Max chart is the Alex Garland A24 movie Warfare at No. 6.
Similar тιтles are surging across streaming and VOD platforms. This includes Coraline and Hocus Pocus on Apple TV, The ‘Burbs and The Nightmare Before Christmas (which was produced by Tim Burton) on Fandango at Home, The Mask and Casper on Netflix, and Haunted Mansion, Twitches, Hocus Pocus 2, and Halloweentown II on Disney+.
However, another potential reason for Burton’s domination on this particular chart is the fact that the legendary filmmaker has had a recent resurgence after a string of lesser-regarded тιтles in the 2010s.
This includes his 2024 legacy sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice becoming the 13th highest-grossing movie of the year with a $452 million haul and his ongoing Netflix series Wednesday (on which he is an executive producer and director) becoming a smash hit on the platform.
After season 1 became the second most-watched season of any series on all of Netflix, Wednesday season 2 has risen to become the seventh most-watched English-language season after spending nine weeks and counting on the platform’s Top 10 chart. Although they are on a different platform, Corpse Bride and Beetlejuice have likely benefitted greatly from the show’s long-awaited resurrection.
