Ghostbusters (2016 film)

A third Ghostbusters film had been in various stages of development following the release of Ghostbusters II in 1989.[13][14] Bill Murray, who played Ghostbuster Peter Venkman in the original films, was reluctant to participate as he felt Ghostbusters II had been lackluster and was critical of new scripts he had read.[15] Murray later clarified that his reluctance was also in part due to his relationship with Columbia Pictures and Sony, rather than any of his co-stars from the first two films.[16] Dan Aykroyd, who co-starred in and co-wrote the original films, stated that the studio was aware that "without Murray there may be nothing there" for a sequel, and was considering a way to introduce a new generation of Ghostbusters.[15]

One script, Ghostbusters 3: Hellbent, written by Aykroyd in 1999, had Venkman leaving the Ghostbusters to spend time with Sigourney Weaver's character Dana Barrett; the remaining Ghostbusters, including a new younger member, fought souls that had been evicted from a hellish version of Manhattan known as Manhelltan.[17] The Hellbent script was revised as Ghostbusters in Hell, with plans to replace Murray with Ben Stiller. The story had the Ghostbusters finding a portal to an alternate dimension in which "all the worst things about modern urban life" are "magnified"; traffic is stuck in perpetual gridlock and no two people speak the same language.[18] Another story idea had Venkman transformed into a ghost.[13]

While the third film remained in development, Ghostbusters: The Video Game was developed by Terminal Reality and released in 2009. Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, cowriters of the original films, used the game to explore the Ghostbusters' history; all four original actors, including Murray, voiced their characters, along with other actors from the original films. Aykroyd considered the game "essentially the third movie".[19] The game sold over a million units, prompting Columbia Pictures to move forward on the Ghostbusters franchise. Ramis stated that the new film would feature the original Ghostbusters but introduce new characters in a script written by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, who had cowritten his 2009 comedy Year One. The movie was set to be filmed in 2010 and released in 2011.[20][21]

Around March 2010, while the new script was being developed, Vulture reported that Columbia wanted to target a younger audience and that original Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman was under pressure to step down in place of a younger director. Reitman, along with Murray, Aykroyd, and Ramis, had long-standing contracts in place with Columbia that effectively allow any of them to veto the development of a Ghostbusters film.[22] Murray had told GQ in 2010 that he felt the script written by Eisenberg and Stupnitsky was poor and "that dream just vaporized", but said that Columbia was pressuring him to make it.[23] Aykroyd defended the script, saying that it offered Murray "the comic role of a lifetime".[24] In January 2012 Aykroyd stated that the film was in "suspended animation" as Murray was still uncooperative. Aykroyd refused to recast the role as he would not make a film that "exploits the franchise".[25] By July 2012, the Eisenberg and Stupnitsky script had been discarded and new writers were working on a script.[26]

Murray's reluctance to commit to the project resulted in the decision to reboot the franchise instead.[13][27] In September 2012, Reitman suggested a remake of the original Ghostbusters, which would allow them to introduce a new cast.[28] Reitman was working on a Ghostbusters reboot that would be written by Reitman, Etan Cohen, and Aykroyd and filmed in 2013.[29][30][31] Following Ramis's death in February 2014, Reitman left the director role to focus on smaller projects, but remained a producer to help Columbia and Sony find a new director for the film.[32] At this point, the script featured the original Ghostbusters in minor roles.[30]

Variety and The Hollywood Reporter reported in August 2014 that Paul Feig had been selected as director and the reboot would feature an all-female cast.[33][34] Feig announced the film and his involvement in October 2014, along with co-writer Katie Dippold,[35] and confirmed his intention to have the film "star hilarious women".[36] Feig stated that he was partly inspired by the TV series The Walking Dead,[37] adding that his goal was to "tell a story you haven't seen before. Or tell a story you've seen before, but in a way you haven't seen it."[38]

Feig said that Sony Pictures Entertainment's co-chairman Amy Pascal had been pushing for comedy writers to produce a script for a new Ghostbusters film for some time, but he believed that most of these writers, like himself, did not want to ruin the canon of the original films. He also wanted to avoid a premise similar to Ghostbusters II, in which the Ghostbusters have to lose their success to begin a new story. This led to the idea of a reboot featuring a new set of characters, an idea that Pascal agreed with.[39]

In January 2015, Feig confirmed his intention to use Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones in the lead roles. At that point, McCarthy had already committed to the film while Sony was in negotiations with the other three actresses.[40][41] Emma Stone was approached to star but declined partly because she did not want to commit to a franchise.[42] Cecily Strong, who appears in a supporting role, was also considered for a leading role.[43] Aykroyd stated that he and his family were "delighted by this inheritance of the Ghostbusters torch by these most magnificent women in comedy."[44]

Bill Murray cameos in the film. Prior to the film, Murray's reluctance to participate in another Ghostbusters project due to his relationship with Sony had hampered efforts for a third film to be made. In a 2019 interview, he stated that his decision to participate in the film was because of his friendships with McCarthy and McKinnon and felt it important to support their project.[16]

Principal photography on the film began on June 17, 2015, in Boston.[45][46] Feig and the set dressers Carolyn Lassek and Claudia Bonfe consulted with MIT physicists before shooting.[47] On June 29, 2015, Feig tweeted the costumes of the four Ghostbusters.[48] Filming also took place in Chinatown, Boston for a few days in early July 2015.[49] On August 17, 2015, Hemsworth was spotted filming some scenes on the Ghostbusters bike.[50] After finishing at the old Naval Air Station in South Weymouth, Massachusetts, filming began in Tribeca in New York City on September 12.[51][52] On September 15, filming was taking place in Waltham, Massachusetts.[53] Filming also took place outside of Columbia University in New York.[52] Filming wrapped on September 19, 2015, in New York City.[54] The subway scenes were filmed on a sound stage, as there is no Seward Street station in the New York City Subway. Reshoots happened in Los Angeles in May 2016,[55] and included new scenes that served as a metafictional comment on the Internet controversy the film gathered.[6]

Six companies dealt with the 1,700 visual effects shots, under the supervision of Pete Travers. The main studios were Sony Pictures Imageworks, with 300 shots that included the climactic Times Square sequence and all the proton beams,[56] Moving Picture Company (MPC), with 250 shots that centered around the final battle which included Rowan's monster form,[56] and Australian company Iloura, with 500 shots encompassing various ghosts.[57] While the majority of the work involved computer-generated imagery, there was an attempt to use various practical effects akin to the original movies, with Travers explaining it was done "not to pay homage, but because it was the best way to achieve the effect."[58]

Stand-ins for the ghosts were created on the set for the actors to interact with, including actresses suspended by wires, drones as references for flying ghosts, a Slimer puppet and giant balloons for a Stay Puft Marshmallow Man parade balloon. As the ghosts in the film glow, the doubles were covered in light-emitting diodes to provide lighting references for the effects crew.[59][60]

The climactic Times Square sequence, which starts with the antagonist proclaiming "Welcome to the glory days of New York City", used special effects to transform it into a bygone mix of stores, buildings and billboards dating back through the decades. These included the Bond Clothing Store, neon signs for the defunct airlines Braniff International Airways (ended in 1982) and BOAC (ended in 1974), billboards advertising the release of the 1976 film Taxi Driver, the 1971 film Isle of the Snake People, and the 1962 to 1964 Broadway theatre production of Beyond the Fringe. The scene also included a combination of the Sony, Canadian Club, and Coca-Cola neon signs that lit up Times Square in different eras, marquees for the long departed Times Square movie theatres showing pornography films and the 1971 film Fists of Fury, and other chronological anachronisms.[61]

Ghostbusters (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the soundtrack album released on July 15, 2016, by RCA Records.[62][63] It includes singles by Elle King, G-Eazy, and 5 Seconds of Summer.

Track listing

Ghostbusters (Original Motion Picture Score) is the film score, composed by Theodore Shapiro.[68] It was available for digital download on July 8, 2016, and released on CD on July 15, 2016, by Sony Classical Records.[69][70]

Track listing

All music is composed by Theodore Shapiro.

A statue of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man bursting through the floor, erected in central London's Waterloo station to generate publicity for the film

The first Ghostbusters trailer was released on March 3, 2016. It was viewed 24 million times in 24 hours on Facebook and YouTube,[108] and more than 60 million times across all social media platforms in its first week.[109]

Original Ghostbusters cast members Murray, Aykroyd, Hudson and Potts joined the new cast on the June 8, 2016, episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, which was entirely dedicated to the new film.[110]

Sony partnered with Snapchat to promote the film with "busting" and "sliming" features. The filter, which features the Ghostbusters logo, allows users to shoot at the character Slimer with their front-facing cameras and a virtual proton pack. In addition, 10-second video teaser ads ran within Snapchat's Discover section.[111] A novelization of the film, written by Nancy Holder, was published by Tor Books in 2016.[112]

The end credits use the title Ghostbusters: Answer the Call. Feig said this was added by the studio, who wanted to avoid confusion by having two films with the title Ghostbusters. He rejected the title Ghostbusters 2016, feeling it would date it. The studio chose Answer the Call; according to Feig, "I just said, 'Don’t put it on the front of the movie. If you put it on the end, I don’t care.'"[5]

Ghostbusters was released on DVD, Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D and Ultra HD Blu-ray on October 11, 2016.[113] The release includes the extended cut of the film, which includes some deleted scenes:[114]

• One scene which shows Erin being ridiculed as a "ghost girl" on the street which leads to her punching the man and causing her to be fired as a Columbia professor.
• Scenes establishing Erin wanting to have some type of recognizition in the scientific community and thus her dedication to ghost hunting.
• Additional scenes to flesh out the background of Rowan and why he wanted to unleash ghosts.
• In the final battle, one attempt to end the standoff by "crossing the streams" as from the original film, but which did not work
• Several dancing scenes including one around the film's climax.

Ghostbusters grossed $128.3 million in North America and $100.8 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $229.1 million,[4] with a net production budget of $144 million.[115] Due to the large amount spent on marketing, the studio stated that the film would need to gross at least $300 million to break even.[116] Before the release, director Paul Feig stated, "A movie like this has to at least get to like $500 million worldwide, and that’s probably low."[117]

The Hollywood Reporter estimated the film's financial losses would be over $70 million.[116][118][119] A representative of Sony found this loss estimate to be "way off," saying: "With multiple revenue streams [...] the bottom line, even before co-financing, is not even remotely close to that number."[116][118] According to Variety, sources familiar with the film's financing estimate the total loss to be about $75 million, of which, due to co-financing with Village Roadshow, Sony would lose about $50 million.[120] Sony insiders have projected, along with co-financing, a total loss of about $25 million.[120] Bloomberg News estimated the film lost $58.6 million.[121] By August 2016, sources such as Forbes and The Wall Street Journal had begun calling Ghostbusters a box office bomb.[11][122][123][124] The film's performance contributed to Sony taking a $1 billion writedown in January 2017.[125]

In the United States and Canada, the film opened Friday, July 15, across 3,963 theaters, earning $17.2 million on its first day,[126] including $3.4 million it made from Thursday preview screenings.[127] The film earned $46 million in its opening weekend, finishing second at the box office behind The Secret Life of Pets ($50.8 million).[115] It procured the biggest opening weekend ever for director Feig and star Melissa McCarthy and was the biggest live-action comedy debut since Pitch Perfect 2 in May 2015.[128] In its second weekend the film dropped 54% to $21 million (compared to the first film increasing in its sophomore week by 11%), dropping to 5th at the box office.[129]

Outside North America, Ghostbusters earned $19.1 million in its opening weekend from a handful of markets on 3,900 screens. IMAX contributed $1 million from 105 IMAX screens.[130] It had number one openings in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland ($6.1 million), number one in Australia ($3.7 million), and number three in Brazil ($2.2 million).[115] It debuted at number one on the DVD and Blu-ray charts after its release on home media in North America.[131]

In a June 2017 television appearance, Aykroyd blamed the film's underperformance on Feig. According to Aykroyd, Feig refused to shoot additional scenes requested by Aykroyd and Sony until test screenings demonstrated they were necessary, costing an additional $30–40 million in reshoots (although Sony claimed reshoots only cost $3–4 million).[132] He wrote a few days later: "Paul Feig made a good movie and had a superb cast and plenty of money to do it. We just wish he had been more inclusive to the originators. It cost everyone as it is unlikely Kristen, Leslie, Melissa and Kate will ever reprise their roles as Ghostbusters which is sad."[133]

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Ghostbusters has an approval rating of 74%, based on 376 reviews, with an average rating of 6.49/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Ghostbusters does an impressive job of standing on its own as a freewheeling, marvelously cast supernatural comedy—even if it can't help but pale somewhat in comparison with the classic original."[134] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 60 out of 100, based on 52 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[135] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[136] Viewers under 18 gave it a higher score of "A-".[115] Audiences surveyed by PostTrak gave a 57% "definite recommend".[137]

Manohla Dargis of The New York Times praised the film as "that rarest of big-studio offerings—a movie that is a lot of enjoyable, disposable fun."[138] In The Guardian, Nigel M. Smith awarded the film four out of five stars and wrote that the "mean-spirited reception to the film before anyone had seen it does not seem to have put a dampener on the movie itself. Fun oozes from almost every frame; likewise the energy of a team excited to be revolutionising the blockbuster landscape."[139] Mike Ryan of Uproxx gave the film a positive review, praising the characters but feeling CGI was overused.[140] J.R. Kinnard of PopMatters praised the performances and the lack of cynicism, but concluded that "it feels like a safe, flavorless recipe prepared from gourmet ingredients."[141] The Village Voice said the film "suffers from the anxiety of influence" of the original, but praised the actors.[142] Mara Reinstein of US Weekly gave the film 2.5 stars out of 4, commending its actors but criticizing its "lazy script that takes forever to get going" and "uninspired" action sequences.[143]

Observer critic Mark Kermode awarded the film three out of five stars and wrote that "it would have been great to report that the finished film is good enough to shut the bigoted naysayers up once and for all [...] The harsh truth is that it isn't", feeling that the film was "generally likeable but uneven."[144] Richard Lawson, writing for Vanity Fair, said the film "spends so much time doing battle with its legacy that it forgets to be its own movie, putting a talented cast to waste and marking another disappointment in this dreadful summer movie season."[145] James Berardinelli felt it was mediocre, and, like many recent comedies, "too long and not funny enough".[146] Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film one out of four stars, criticizing its acting, script, and "cheesy" special effects.[147] In his radio review, Roeper said that the film was one of the worst movies of the year, rating it a D−.[148]

After its opening weekend, Sony's president of worldwide distribution, Rory Bruer, told TheWrap that "while nothing has been officially announced, there's no doubt in [his] mind [a sequel] will happen." He also said that Ghostbusters was expected to become an important Sony franchise.[163] The principal cast and Feig had signed on for two sequels.[116]

On August 10, 2016, The Hollywood Reporter expressed doubts about a sequel due to the film's box office performance.[116][118] Box office analyst Jeff Bock said, "I just can't fathom the creative talents behind it—Feig, McCarthy, Wiig, etc—slogging out another one when the reception to the first one was so mediocre."[116]

In an October 2016 interview, Feig told Bustle that a sequel was not in the works, but could be possible if the film performed well on its home release.[164] By November, Feig confirmed that a direct sequel would not be made due to the film's mediocre box office performance.[165]

The same month, Reitman stated in an interview that other Ghostbusters projects were in development.[166] Prior to Reitman's announcement, an animated series, Ghostbusters: Ecto Force, was stated to be targeting an early 2018 debut.[167] Reitman further clarified plans for future animated films within the Ghostbusters franchise during the July 2017 San Diego Comic-Con, including having one set from the viewpoint of the ghosts rather than the Ghostbusters, as well as a work to potentially tie in to the 35th anniversary of the original film in 2019.[168]

In December 2016, IDW Publishing announced that it would release a six-part limited series comic, Ghostbusters 101, featuring the original Ghostbusters teaming up with the 2016 team. The first issue was released in March 2017.[169] A five-issue limited series, Ghostbusters: Answer the Call, which continues the adventures of the 2016 team, began in October 2017.[170]

In November 2018, Dan Aykroyd, on an appearance on AXS TV's The Big Interview with Dan Rather, announced that the script for Ghostbusters 3 was still being written, saying there is "a possibility of a reunion with the three remaining Ghostbusters".[171][172]

On January 15, 2019, Ivan Reitman's son Jason Reitman was announced to be directing a new Ghostbusters film set in the same universe as the first two films, with Ivan serving as a producer and Gil Kenan co-writing the script alongside Jason. The film was projected for a July 10, 2020 release,[173] but was delayed to March 5, 2021 due to the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic.