By After much gnashing of teeth and unwarranted anger Ghostbusters came out and was actually quite enjoyable. It didn’t really blow the box office away, however, as THR is reporting that the movie is heading for a $70 million or more loss. That seems to have put a hold on Paul Feig’s film getting a sequel, and most of the original plans for the extended Ghostbusters universe. With only $117 million domestically the movie is going to have a hard time getting to $225 million, let alone the $300 million they need to break even on it.
Sony isn’t commenting at the moment on whether the sequel, which was promised to be happening on opening weekend, is officially nixed, but their actions are tell the story. A rep for the studio says that they’re pursuing an animated Ghostbusters feature for 2019 and an animated TV series, Ghostbusters: Ecto Force that may show up by 2018. Neither of those would follow the film’s world and both would take up time from making a sequel.
To be fair, Sony is disputing the potential losses as they believe that revenue streams from merchandise to theme park rides will bring in enough to make the film worthwhile.
“We’re very proud of the bold movie Paul Feig made, which critics and audiences loved,” a studio rep told 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.”
Many ideas of which none are a sequel. The real question is does Hollywood once again blame female leads for the failures here, especially after all the insanity from the Internet?
