Ghost Busters (2016): Oversized Controversy Undersized Returns

[CrashBandicoot81]

Now i'm not going to summarize the whole story of Ghostbusters 2016 controversy or whether or not Sony used it to their advantage or not but it is fair to say that the movie is really much more well known for the backlash while the actual movie itself has been long forgotten.

 

Ghostbusters 2016 was announced to rather divisive reception. Some thought the movie didn't seem funny and the trailers weren't all that great either. However for some, the backlash was an example of misogyny because it was a female eccentric film. Others in the middle just throught it was yet another remake of a film that didn't need to be remade, especially considering the failures of Total Recall, Robocop, The Thing, Poltergeist and many others. 

 

Over the early summer the internet war heated up. Most notable around this time was James Rolfe, famous for being the Angry Video Game Nerd and long time Ghostbusters fan, made a video to his fans stating the movie didn't interest him and so he wasn't going to go see it. This mild take, which otherwise would have not been at the slightness a non-issue, blue up on Social media and websites with some calling him sexist and "celebrities" like Dane Cook and Patton Oswalt calling him out. Only in 2016 would someone deciding to not want to watch a movie would get people on twitter angry. Looking back at it, is funny how overblown that nontroversy was. James Rolfe to this day is still doing Angry Video Game Nerd videos.

 

Anyway, Ghostbusters opened up at 46 million dollars, second place behind Secret Life of Pets. Because of its 144 budget, it had to make say 300m to break even. It didn't do that. While it performed fine enough with a 128 Million domestically, it bombed internationally with it not even getting into China. It reportedly lost Sony 70 million dollars. It is unknown if the GA also didn't want a Ghostbusters remake, was turned off by the flame war, or that it only had a niche with fans of Paul Feig's movies. Maybe it would have flopped as badly as those other remakes mentioned earlier, but the controversy got the attention of those who wouldn't have seen it otherwise? but whatever the case, it was still a flop for Sony.

 

a few years later, another movie that disregards the remake has been announced, but it is unknown how well it will do. Whatever the case, the remake has been largely forgotten unless one is talking about the controversy.

Edited April 20, 2021 by CrashBandicoot81