'Ghostbusters' Heading For $70M-Plus Loss, Sequel Unlikely
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Confronted by tepid box office for the reboot, the studio will instead focus on animated spinoffs.
Immediately upon the opening of Ghostbusters in mid-July, top Sony executives boldly declared a sequel to Paul Feig's all-female reboot of Ivan Reitman's 1984 classic was a given. "While nothing has been officially announced yet, there's no doubt in my mind it will happen," said Rory Bruer, president of worldwide distribution at Sony.
That was the studio's last public mention of a sequel. As of Aug. 7, Ghostbusters had earned just under $180 million at the global box office, including $117 million domestic. The film still hasn't opened in a few markets, including France, Japan and Mexico, but box-office experts say it will have trouble getting to $225 million despite a hefty net production budget of $144 million plus a big marketing spend. The studio has said break-even would be $300 million.
Sony hardly is alone in suffering from audience rejection of sequels this summer. But film chief Tom Rothman and his team, along with partner Village Roadshow, had high hopes for launching a live-action Ghostbusters "universe." Now they are preparing for steep losses (think $70 million-plus) and an uncertain future for the franchise.
Sony won't comment on whether it has banished a sequel to the netherworld, but perhaps tellingly, a rep says the studio actively is pursuing an animated Ghostbusters feature that could hit theaters in 2019 and an animated TV series, Ghostbusters: Ecto Force, which is eyeing an early 2018 bow. Both are being guided by Reitman, who firmly is back in charge of the Ghostbusters empire via Ghost Corps., a subsidiary with a mandate to expand the brand across platforms. (It was former Sony film chief Amy Pascal who first embraced Feig's vision for the live-action reboot, not Reitman or Rothman.) "We're very proud of the bold movie Paul Feig made, which critics and audiences loved," a studio rep tells THR. "It has enlivened a 30-year-old brand and put it into the modern zeitgeist. As a result, we have many ideas in the works to further exploit the Ghostbusters universe."
Feig hasn't said whether he'll return. Stars Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon are said to be signed for two potential sequels, and initially they said they were game. But now? "Ghostbusters is on ice until further notice," says box-office analyst Jeff Bock. "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."
Sony disputes the amount of the potential loss, insisting that revenue streams from merchandising and such attractions as a new Ghostbusters exhibit at Madame Tussauds and a theme park ride in Dubai will help defray any deficit. The studio also notes that the number of people renting the 1984 film has soared over the summer.
"This loss calculation is way off," says the Sony rep. "With multiple revenue streams, including consumer products, gaming, location-based entertainment, continued international rollout, and huge third-party promotional partnerships that mitigated costs, the bottom line, even before co-financing, is not remotely close to that number."
Comments
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Sad they probably ? up the chance of a real decent sequel/remake.
How could they not see this garbage was doomed from the start though? -
For all the hate it got I enjoyed ghostbusters more than I did Bvs, Suicide Squad, and Independence day Resurgence. at least the first half of the ghostbusters movie anyway.
Independence Day Resurgence should've got the hate that Ghost busters received.
I would prob say the movie with the most hype hype that prob lived up to the expectations was Captain America: Civil War.
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Sony stays losing. If Sony was a rapper it'd be Nas.
EDIT: Even Nas who always loses was sharp enough to leave Sony years ago. That's how much they suck. Even those oblivious to winning could see their downfalls coming a mile away. If it wasn't for Playstation Sony would be Toshiba. -
They hope the woman thing would cover the cracks. Film is trash and with how dope TV is its difficult to get ? to the cinema
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Hate that they ruined this and Independence Day. My childhood... Ruined
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It wasnt even that bad.
People act like the OG was a masterpiece.
? Sigourney Weaver having ghosts in her refrigerator and ?
http://youtu.be/NFZPhf5p-BU -
Good, it was a piece of feminist trash, hope sonebody got fired for that trash
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Meanwhile...
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GB failed because they [SONY] tried to capitalize on this recent feminist wave BUT failed to realize that males are the target demographic of these types of movies and SONY worked real hard to alienate their core audience. The feminists that they pandered to didn't even support the movie. ? was forgotten about after the 2nd weekend.
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Recaptimus_Prime360 wrote: »Meanwhile...
Bill Murry cosigned the remake and played a character in it.
If anything Harold Ramis was prolly spinning in his grave after they remade his ? . He was the one who wrote the OG -
L1: Making the entire cast female to accomodate feminist agenda.
L2: Casting 4 women who really aren't funny.
L3: Needing $300 million to break even.
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Recaptimus_Prime360 wrote: »Meanwhile...
Bill Murry cosigned the remake and played a character in it.
Rumor has it they threaten to sue if he refused to be in the remake.. -
GB failed because they [SONY] tried to capitalize on this recent feminist wave BUT failed to realize that males are the target demographic of these types of movies and SONY worked real hard to alienate their core audience. The feminists that they pandered to didn't even support the movie. ? was forgotten about after the 2nd weekend.
This. Ghostbusters has a audience of mainly males. Males who would have loved to see another film but instead got this. -
trilladelic wrote: »Recaptimus_Prime360 wrote: »Meanwhile...
Bill Murry cosigned the remake and played a character in it.
Rumor has it they threaten to sue if he refused to be in the remake..
How?
Murry's been turning down GB projects for years now. If they were gonna sue they could have sued him for not doing GB 3. -
$300 million to break even? Finance took the L on this one. I don't understand how you approve a budget like this without some kind of confidence you'll get it back.
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Revolver Ocelot wrote: »trilladelic wrote: »Recaptimus_Prime360 wrote: »Meanwhile...
Bill Murry cosigned the remake and played a character in it.
Rumor has it they threaten to sue if he refused to be in the remake..
How?
Murry's been turning down GB projects for years now. If they were gonna sue they could have sued him for not doing GB 3.
It was in one of those leaked emails from when North Korea hacked Sony. -
People keep bring up the fact that it was three women as if that was the major problem. I don't think that was really it though. I think the problem was more that the original had a cult following and they were expecting Sony to give them something that related to the thing they loved. Instead, Sony came out with something completely different. The Angry Video Game Nerd addressed this. He basically said that if Sony had done something as small as distinguishing the movie name more, he probably would have taken it better. But the way Sony went about it made it seem like they were trying to replace the first movie with this movie, and that's what ? him off.
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For all the hate it got I enjoyed ghostbusters more than I did Bvs, Suicide Squad, and Independence day Resurgence. at least the first half of the ghostbusters movie anyway.
Independence Day Resurgence should've got the hate that Ghost busters received.
I would prob say the movie with the most hype hype that prob lived up to the expectations was Captain America: Civil War.
The ? is wrong with you? -
The Lonious Monk wrote: »People keep bring up the fact that it was three women as if that was the major problem. I don't think that was really it though. I think the problem was more that the original had a cult following and they were expecting Sony to give them something that related to the thing they loved. Instead, Sony came out with something completely different. The Angry Video Game Nerd addressed this. He basically said that if Sony had done something as small as distinguishing the movie name more, he probably would have taken it better. But the way Sony went about it made it seem like they were trying to replace the first movie with this movie, and that's what ? him off.
Actually having an all female cast is part of the problem I understand they tried to twist it up but they failed on that.....it's just somethings you don't do and that was one of them -
Revolver Ocelot wrote: »trilladelic wrote: »Recaptimus_Prime360 wrote: »Meanwhile...
Bill Murry cosigned the remake and played a character in it.
Rumor has it they threaten to sue if he refused to be in the remake..
How?
Murry's been turning down GB projects for years now. If they were gonna sue they could have sued him for not doing GB 3.
He probably did it because him and Melissa McCarthy did St. Vincent together ( great movie btw). -
Yeah it was doomed from the start they tried shoving that feminist agenda down our throats and it rightfully backfired.What is with radical liberal overtone in some of these reboots and changing of original characters and formulas?
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it would've been a better idea if they made a reboot based on the real ghost busters cartoon. just hire a bunch of young actors in their late 20's who resemble the original cast some what, make egon a blonde and ray stantz a redhead have them bust ghost, that were featured in the animated series with one big bad behind the whole thing and have slimer hanging around the firehouse as a mascot and voila you have a hit. but no they had to attempt to be different and controversial by having an all woman cast of barely funny comediannes.
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Hollywood studios stay ? up. Feminist and ? agenda ruined decent remakes. Mermaid GB & even Star Wars. True creativity died in the 80's
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Wonder if they still gonna try that all female.ocean eleven movie