Warner Bros. reportedly tried to release "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" on Max because it was worried it would fail.

Tim Burton has some experience with streaming under his belt, as he is an executive producer on the hit Netflix series Wednesday, but in the discussion of making Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the idea of making it as a Max original was apparently a non-starter. In the words of producer Pamela Abdy,

A New York Times story profiling the huge financial success of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice revealed that director Tim Burton drastically slashed the sequel’s budget shortly before filming began. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice producers and Warner Bros.

Tim Burton got the budget for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice slashed by insisting on a theatrical release, but that decision ultimately saved the movie.