Caffeinated Clint
With a loss of a sumly $70 million, Sony’s “Ghostbusters” reboot mightn’t spawn the [live-action] franchise the Summer comedy was intended to.
Prior to the Paul Feig directed movie’s opening in July, the studio were confident that the movie would kick-off on a new series of “Ghostbusters” films. According to The Hollywood Reporter, that’s no longer the case with the studio hit by bills big enough to scare anyone off a second one.
“Ghostbusters is on ice until further notice,” says box-office analyst Jeff Bock in a yak with the trade. “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.”
To break even the studio has to make $300 million on the film – as of last week, “Ghostbusters” had earned just under $180 million at the global box office. Though the film is still yet to open in some territories, it’s unlikely it’ll make so much in those spots (France, Japan, Mexico) that the studio will see themselves out of the red on this one.
Sony isn’t the only one losing out here, Village Roadshow was also a financial partner on the film.
According to THR, plans for a live-action sequel have seemingly been replaced by an animated ”Ghostbusters” feature that could hit theaters in 2019 and an animated TV series, ”Ghostbusters: Ecto Force”, expected to hit 2018.
Producer and “Ghostbusters” head-honcho Ivan Reitman is apparently more for those projects than he ever was the live-action “Ghostbusters” movie that hit this year – that was a project ex-Sony chief Amy Pascal greenlit not Reitman or new studio prez Tom 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.”
Might the best bet to be make a movie featuring ‘all’ of the Ghostbusters – Feig’s team with the surviving members of Reitman’s team? Just an idea.
