Girlbusters is a colossal failure any way you look at it. This was one of the greatest brand names in movies, a visible franchise that has never stopped producing tie-in comic books and merchandise, one of the dormant properties with the biggest nostalgia and built-in fanbase based on an original movie that has proved timeless in its content if not in all of its effects. Just like Indiana Jones, knock-offs of the basic premise have been produced and been successful for years while the franchise remained dormant. Ghostbusters outgrossed Temple of Doom in 1984 and had an almost equal opening week to Last Crusade in 1989. Arguably, Ghostbusters had retained an even more enthusiastic fanbase than Indiana Jones with more cosplay action and a wider array of successful merchandise for many years up to the point of the new movie's release. If Sony had produced a proper sequel that respected the vast, rich 30-year legacy of the Ghostbusters universe, the way that was done for Star Wars and in an even more apt comparison Indiana Jones, the movie would have had a massive opening similar to Crystal Skull.
What we're seeing with the box office performance is flat-lining interest from the actual fans who should've been the built-in audience that gets satisfied first before an attempt to expand on the audience was made. The Thursday preview numbers, especially from premium format screens, were atrocious and paled in comparison to the advance sales we're seeing for Star Trek and Suicide Squad, films making every attempt to satisfy their fanbase first. Those are the screenings that the fans would've filled up under normal circumstances. Instead Sony said, screw the Ghostbusters fans, and is trying to cobble together an audience from the most casual moviegoers, resulting in a deeply depressed box office performance compared to the guaranteed potential that was there. When you take what may be the biggest comedy franchise of all time, with a huge curiosity factor as to where the story could have gone in a sequel, and can only muster up a box office performance on par with the last no-name Paul Feig comedy, you are doing everything all wrong.
For the supporters of the cinematic abortion Girlbusters to be spinning a chance for it to maybe, possibly break even in the long, long run as some kind of success is simply preposterous. This is as much of a wrongheaded reboot and a box office disappointment as Superman Returns was. There is only one way for Sony to redeem the franchise and that is to do what WB did with Superman Returns, pretend it never happened and do something different and more respectful to the original film next time. Superman is not supposed to be an absentee father with a bastard Superkid and the Ghostbusters are not supposed to be 4 women. There are basic lines you don't cross with a property if you want to avoid destroying the essence of what made its characters likable and popular in the first place.
