While Ghostbusters was received fairly well by critics, with reviews leaning mostly towards the more positive end of the spectrum, it didn’t do so hot at the box office. Though Sony seemed confident in a sequel right from the time the film hit theatres (and even a bit before, too), the reboot’s final numbers seemed to put paid to the idea, with Ghostbusters earning $229 million off an apparent budget of $144 million.
It wasn’t an outright failure then, but those figures are hardly the type of thing to light a fire under the studio in regards to getting a follow-up made. As such, it looks like Paul Feig’s reboot won’t be spawning any further outings. At least, we don’t think it will. However, not everyone’s quite as certain.
The director of the original Ghostbusters, Ivan Reitman, claims that we’ll actually be getting several more films and that they’re currently being developed:
“There’s going to be many other Ghostbusters movies, they’re just in development right now,” said Reitman during his Mr. Wavvy podcast interview.
While we’d like to believe what’s being said here, the fact of the matter is Sony lost a significant amount of money on Ghostbusters once you take into account the promotional budget. Rumor has it the studio is about $70 million in the hole on the reboot, though they’d probably tell you otherwise. Either way, it clearly wasn’t a profitable venture for them and as such, we’re not so confident in the fact that we’ll get a sequel.
Then again, Feig hasn’t given up hope just yet, and perhaps we shouldn’t either. After all, the film certainly had its high points and there’s a strong fanbase out there who’d be all for seeing another one. Maybe if they could come up with a smaller budget for the second outing it’d be a more appealing investment for Sony. Everyone involved seems to truly love the property and it probably wouldn’t be too difficult to have them take a bit of a pay cut to get a sequel made.
Right now, it’s still far too early to know where the franchise will go from here. Sony hasn’t announced any plans thus far, so it’s clearly not a priority for them at the moment, but we do hope that Feig gets a chance to execute his follow-up. Ghostbusters may have had its fair share of flaws, but it still offered up a refreshing take on the beloved property and was brought to life with a stellar cast, one who clicked extremely well and showed great chemistry. It might not have been exactly the film fans wanted, but there was still enough good here to have us eager for a second round.