The sequel to 1988’s “Beetlejuice,” serving up nostalgia, Winona and O’Hara and Ortega and Keaton and vintage Tim Burton production design, if not laughs, is aiming at being the second best Sept. opening weekend record, with a $110 take on tap after a big Thursday, Friday and Sat.

Starting with $14 million in previews pushed the picture over $40 million for the day. Sat. and Sunday will tell the tale.

Reviews have been a lot more mixed than the angry near-illiterates sending me hate mail would have you believe. It’s a gorgeous “joyless” film, a shallow comedy — nothing deeper. And what do comedies require? Laughs. Barely a half dozen chuckles in it.

The picture gives Warners a leg up on everybody else as we head into the fall film season, as “Deadpool & Wolverine” empties its last mag as it  clears $7.2 million this weekend. It’s over $610 million, so perhaps Hugh J. won’t have to do Mint Mobile/Aviation Gin ads with Van City Reynolds to keep a roof over his head.

“Reagan” is holding (conservative) audience, a less than 40% drop off will allow it to nudge over  $5 million on its sophomore weekend. This Dennis Quaid/Penelope Ann Miller/Jon Voight hagiography will clear the $18 million mark by midnight Sunday.

A24 released “The Front Room” probably a week too late. It’s a late-August dumping ground thriller, it turns out, bombing with $1.5 million (if they’re lucky). Bad reviews, rare enough for A24 titles, killed it. And as I and others have noticed and discussed, the horror movie audience seems to have largely checked-out of the genre, with misses piling up and hits (“Longlegs”) rare as Stephen King Nobel prizes.

“Alien: Romulus” and “It Ends with Us” will both be in the $1.1 million range, falling in fifth and sixth place once that shakes out. “Us” will finish its run as about $145, “Alien” at maybe $131.

I’ll update this running tally over the course of the weekend as more data rolls in more more tickets sell.