33 Years Ago, A Twisted Holiday Movie Mashup Launched a Billion Dollar Franchise, But Never Got a Sequel

Jack Skellington has been celebrating Christmas for 33 years, and he has made Disney a fortune doing it. Receiving a wide release on October 29th, 1993, The Nightmare Before Christmas introduced audiences to the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, who discovers Christmas. Thinking he can do a better job than Santa, Jack abducts Sandy Claws and attempts to give the world his version of the holiday. The stop-motion musical has become an annual tradition complete with theatrical rereleases, mountains of merchandise, and a Disneyland attraction gets a Halloween Town makeover by Jack every fall. The Nightmare Before Christmas has reportedly made Disney more than a billion dollars in merchandise sales but has never received a theatrical sequel.

Disney wasn’t even sure what to do with The Nightmare Before Christmas when it was first released. The studio considered the movie too dark for its family-friendly image and released it under its Touchstone Pictures banner. The film was a modest theatrical success, but its popularity exploded on home video. Today, it’s practically required viewing from October through December. The movie generally returns to select theaters every year, including Disney’s El Capitan theater in Hollywood, continuing a tradition of rereleases that has kept Halloween Town alive for more than three decades.

Since 2001, Jack Skellington has been taking over the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland each Halloween season. Haunted Mansion Holiday swaps out the attraction’s normal ghosts and decor for characters from Halloween Town, including a fancy gingerbread house that changes each year. Across the resort at Disney California Adventure, Oogie Boogie hosts his own separately ticketed Halloween party, Oogie Boogie Bash, with Disney villains, trick-or-treating, and a dance party. Both returned in 2026, as Haunted Mansion Holiday celebrated its 25th anniversary. Disney has turned a film it was once afraid to release under its own banner into a huge part of its Halloween business. Director Henry Selick has said Disney made over a billion dollars selling Nightmare Before Christmas merchandise, although he doesn’t see a nickel of it.

A Billion Dollar Nightmare

The movie is called Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, but Burton didn’t direct it. He created the original story and character designs, but Selick directed the film, supervising the painstaking stop-motion animation process. Selick has not been shy about voicing his frustrations that Burton gets most of the credit. He’s said Burton’s name wasn’t added to the title until three weeks before release. The Edward Scissorhands director was busy making other films, while it took Selick and his team years to bring Halloween Town to life.

Danny Elfman was just as important in the making of The Nightmare Before Christmas. Before they completed the screenplay, he began writing songs with Burton and Caroline Thompson, who shaped much of the story around those musical pieces. Elfman also had been set to voice Jack Skellington, having already recorded his singing parts, but Burton and Selick cast Chris Sarandon. The decision led to a falling out between Burton and Elfman, causing Elfman to not work on Burton’s next film, Ed Wood. Selick has conceded that Elfman deserves “at least a third of the credit” for the creative vision of the movie. The director also talks about his own frustration with the movie’s legacy in Netflix’s The Movies That Made Us, which is worth watching for a closer look at how the movie came together. With three creative forces who each have a claim to the movie’s success, getting everyone back together might be a nightmare of its own.

Nightmare Before Christmas 2: Electric Oogie Boogieloo

Halloween Town has appeared in several video games, most notably in Square Enix’s Kingdom Hearts franchise, where Jack joins Sora, Donald, and Goofy on their adventures. But the closest thing to a true sequel arrived in 2004, with Capcom’s The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie’s Revenge, released in North America the following year for PlayStation 2 and Xbox. In the original film, there was a forest of mysterious doors that led to other holiday worlds, but Jack only visited Christmas Town. Oogie’s Revenge finally makes use of those other doors, showing the rulers of worlds based on Easter, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Thanksgiving, and the Fourth of July. The game is set a year after the movie, and Jack is getting bored with Halloween again, so he leaves town to find new ideas. While he is gone, Lock, Shock, and Barrel bring back Oogie Boogie. In a plan to become the Seven Holidays’ king, Oogie Boogie kidnaps the rulers of the other holidays and steals their doors. Jack returns to find Halloween Town overrun by monsters and must save Sally, fix the holiday doors, rescue Sandy Claws, and defeat a giant version of Oogie Boogie.

Chris Sarandon returned as Jack, alongside Ken Page as Oogie Boogie, although Kath Soucie replaced Catherine O’Hara as Sally. The biggest thing missing was new music from Danny Elfman. Rather than original songs, Oogie’s Revenge reused melodies from the movie with rewritten lyrics, turning familiar numbers into musical boss battles. While the game doesn’t have Tim Burton’s quirky charm, as far as plots for a sequel go, it wasn’t the worst.

No Movie Without Sally

As for a proper sequel, Burton doesn’t want one. He’s said the movie is too important to him to revisit. After making Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice with Jenna Ortega, Burton has said that he doesn’t want to do sequels at all anymore. In a page straight out of The Godfather Part 2, Selick has suggested a prequel exploring how Jack became the Pumpkin King, but even he doubts Burton would approve. Elfman backed that up in an interview with us in 2022, “I don’t think so,” Elfman said about a Nightmare follow-up. “I think Tim has always felt that no, this is what it was.”

Following Catherine O’Hara’s death in January 2026, it’s even harder to imagine another movie without her. O’Hara provided Sally’s voice and returned to perform “Sally’s Song” alongside Danny Elfman at the Hollywood Bowl for the movie’s 30th anniversary in 2023. Elfman has said, “I honestly don’t think I could do it without Catherine.” Following her death, he recalled how performing the song together would bring him to tears. It’s difficult to picture Halloween Town without our Sally.

There is one hope, though. Henry Selick has suggested that shorts featuring some of the characters from the film were within the realm of possibility. He’s even got an idea for a short with Zero. With annual theatrical rereleases, Haunted Mansion Holiday, and an entire merchandise empire, Disney doesn’t exactly need another Nightmare Before Christmas. But with Johnny Depp returning to movie screens, perhaps Burton could be convinced to revisit his other stop-motion musical instead. Is it too late for a Corpse Honeymoon?

What would you want to see from a Nightmare Before Christmas sequel? Let us know in the comments!