After so much sturm und drang, “Ghostbusters” finally opened this weekend, and while the box office was impressive in some regards (marking the biggest debut to date Paul Feig and Melissa McCarthy have had together), in other ways Sony still has a lot of work to do. The film cost upwards of $150 million (plus marketing), and Feig has gone on record saying the movie needs to do at least $500 million worldwide. And with China still a question mark (the studio has yet to submit the film to the country’s censors, who are known to ban content featuring the supernatural/ghosts), some would argue the financials aren’t in yet to really determine if a followup for all-female reboot is in the cards. But it seems Sony is already quite happy with what they’re seeing.
“The ‘Ghostbusters’ world is alive and well,” said Sony’s President of Worldwide Distribution Rory Bruer as the numbers rolled in over the weekend (via The Wrap). “There’s no doubt in my mind [a sequel] will happen.”
Well, that’s certainly confident, but let’s remember that Sony isn’t above rebooting a property again, if the first attempt didn’t work out (see “The Amazing Spider-Man” followed by their collaboration with Marvel in a few short years). The next few weeks will be interesting, to say the least.
READ MORE: Forget The Sexes: Gender Is The Least Of The New ‘Ghostbusters” Concerns [Review]
Meanwhile, longtime franchise steward, producer, and director Ivan Reitman weighed in on the rumored all-dude “Ghostbusters” reboot. At one time, the word on the street was that Sony was also developing this iteration, which would’ve starred Channing Tatum and Chris Pratt, and possibly been released after Feig’s picture. That plan was pretty much scrapped, though it did get a partial way down the path.
“I was never involved in that, it was never real,” Reitman told The Globe And Mail. “There was a writer hired by the studio who did 30 pages, and it wasn’t very good … The biggest misconception was that we were creating a parallel film in case the girls version didn’t work out. But the only movie we were making was Paul’s movie. It never faltered.”
Reading between the lines, it sounds like the studio went out and tried to cook up their own concept, but as Reitman states, he wasn’t involved, and it doesn’t sound like something he would’ve signed off on.
So, sorry folks whose childhoods are somehow ruined by something happening in the present (can movies travel through time and affect memory?), not only is Paul Feig’s “Ghostbusters” with Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon here to stay, but there may be even more.