2016’s Ghostbusters certainly didn’t make the impact that Sony was hoping for. The studio must have thought they were onto a winner by revitalizing a beloved franchise and recasting it with all-female leads when such a thing was becoming more common. Unfortunately though, the casting decisions were lambasted by certain people on social media and the movie, when it eventually came out, earned lacking reviews and its box office take fell far below what was expected.
Director Paul Feig has remained hopeful that a sequel may still happen, though, saying as recently as April that he’d love to return to the franchise. However, it seems the decision has been taken out of his hands. Original star and co-creator of the series, Dan Aykroyd has revealed that there will categorically not be another movie following the reboot. He was very frank about the reason why as well: it’s because Feig spent too much money on the movie.
“Now let me say this about the girls movie that they made. It was really good. And [director] Paul Feig made a good movie, and there are some great things in it and the girls are great in it. I was mad at him because he cost too much. I don’t want to slag a fellow artist, but had it cost a little less and had he listened to some of our suggestions on budget then there might have been another girls movie. That would have been great. I’m sorry that’s not happening because… boy, they were terrific Ghostbusters, Kate [McKinnon] and Melissa [McCarthy] and Leslie [Jones] were just great, and Kristen Wiig of course. I love those women. I love their performances. I wished for them that they would have been able to make another one.
Clearly, Aykroyd would have been interested in pursuing more films with McCarthy and the rest of the rebooted cast, as he makes a point of saying how much he liked them in the movie, but the overspending he attributes to Feig on the production means that he and the studio have sworn off green-lighting another one.
It’s somewhat of a shame, too, as Feig previously revealed what he wanted to do with the sequel and his ideas sound intriguing. Apparently, he wanted to take the Ghostbusters international and explore the ghosts haunting the rest of the world away from New York. Presumably, Aykroyd and the studio would have been interested in expanding the scope of the franchise in this way but alas, it was not to be.
On the plus side, Aykroyd’s now promising that the franchise is going back to basics and a Ghostbusters 3, perhaps with himself, Bill Murray and Ernie Hudson returning, is on the way, and that’s certainly more exciting than a sequel for Feig’s film, wouldn’t you say?