US film fans are balking at the price of a cocktail created by AMC Theatres for people to sip while watching Beetlejuice 2.

AMC Theatres, the biggest cinema chain in the world, has created a controversial cocktail in celebration of the return of the sartorially striped protagonist in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, released earlier this month.

The original Beetlejuice film, directed by Tim Burton, was released by Warner Bros in 1988. It told the story of The Maitlands, a deceased couple who want to scare away the new inhabitants of their home, the property having been sold after the couple’s death, as well as the fate of The Deetzes, the house’s new owners.

A common thread throughout the original film is the appearance of so-called ‘sandworms’, and now AMC Theatres has named an extortionately priced and sugar-filled cocktail after these abhorrent creatures in celebration of the sequel.

The Sandworm Slayer combines premium vodka with blue and black raspberry juice, with the final concoction topped with a wriggling heap of fizzy gummy worms. It also comes with an equally repellent price tag, with AMC charging US$21-31 per cocktail, depending on the alcohol tax law of the state in which the cinema is located.

“Like so many of our movie-tie-in drinks, the Sandworm Slayer is wildly popular across the AMC circuit and sold very well during the weekend,” claimed AMC.

However, social media tells a somewhat different story with cinema goers lambasting the price of the drink.

“Naw Beetlejuice would’ve had to show up and bring me my drink for that price,” wrote one commenter.

Another pointed out: “You could have bought 6 shares of AMC Theatres stock with that $31, not sure which one would have been worth the price.”

Green mania

Other US cinemas and screening venues have created their own green-coloured cocktails to celebrate Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

Look Cinemas, with branches in California, Florida, Virginia and more, launched The Beetlejuice Green Apple Sour. Meanwhile, the Dr. Philips Center in Orlando has riffed on AMC’s cocktail with The Sandworm, made using vodka, coconut rum, blue caracao, pineapple juice and lemon-lime soda.

New York’s Rochester Broadway Theatre League has launched The Beetlejuice Cocktail, made with midori, fig vodka, blackberry and passionfruit.

Cinergy Entertainment, with venues in Texas, Oklahoma and North Carolina among others, is serving up its Beetlejuice Beetlejuice cocktail, prepared using melon liqueur, vodka, ginger beer, sour mix and soda.

As with the first film, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is directed by Tim Burton, and stars original cast members Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder along with newcomers Jenna Ortega and Justin Theroux. According to IMDB, the film took US$111 million in its opening weekend starting 6 September, and generated US$52 million in ticket sales during its second weekend. North America carried 79% of the film’s total global box office takings.

The gummy worms and name of AMC Theatre’s Sandworm Slayer cocktail are a nod to the sandworms which inhabit the otherworldly desert that character Adam Maitland encounters when he opens his front door following his death in the original film, before he realises that he has departed. Sandworms also appear in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, with characters Astrid and Lydia fleeing from a sandworm after accidentally opening a portal to the afterlife.

Aside from the Beetlejuice franchise, sandworms feature heavily in fellow Warner Bros film series Dune and Dune 2 (starring Timothée Chalamet and Zandaya), with the sand vibrating when a sandworm approaches, and characters mastering the art of riding sandworms as a means of transportation.