The 2024 Venice Film Festival kicked off with a green, gothic bang with Tim Burton's highly anticipated sequel "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice," which opened the festival to a three-minute standing ovation.

The applause likely would have lasted much longer, but Venice's programmers quickly dimmed the lights as Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara and Jenna Ortega took a bow and accepted the applause.

But this cast didn't hold back. Keaton and Burton drew loud applause as they signed dozens of autographs (though Burton declined to ask a female fan to sign "my next tattoo" in a notebook she was clutching). Ortega, looking radiant in a red Dior dress, reveled in the spotlight as a newcomer to the franchise, snapping selfies with well-wishers in the theater lobby. When the show began, the 21-year-old star led a standing ovation for Sigourney Weaver, who accepted an honorary Golden Lion before "Beetlejuice 2" began.

Warner Bros.' fantasy comedy horror will hit theaters 36 years after Burton's 1988 cult original, with Keaton, Ryder and O'Hara reprising their roles alongside new cast members Ortega, Monica Bellucci, Justin Theroux and Willem Dafoe. The film sees the Deetz family returning to their old family home, this time with Ryder's rebellious teenage daughter (Ortega) discovering the model of the city in the attic, opening the portal to the afterlife and once again releasing Keaton's Betelgeuse.