Ghostbusters 2021 weekend Nov 19-21: Afterlife $44M OW | E: $10.8m | RD: $8.1m

[Starphanluke]

2 minutes ago, von Kenni said:

 

Yeah the audience loved it with 95% RT ratings and the new one got it worse with just 49% RT ratings...oh, wait.

 

They're clearly talking critical reviews. Ghostbusters 2016 was also very publicly review-bombed. It got a B+ cinemascore, which isn't great but also not bad. 

 

This argument is honestly so old and exhausting. Both movies have their merits and flaws and the similar performances indicate to me a general ceiling/public interest in the franchise.

[YM!]

I just don’t get the hate behind this piece of media. I got to experience it yesterday and it was the best experience I’ve had this year. Yes it may rely a bit too much on nostalgia but it’s been a while since this franchise has been this fun to me and corrected the mistake of the previous entry. And judging from critics reaction there’s clear bias.
 

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

I gotta keep this bit going.

 

 

[Flopped]

16 minutes ago, grim22 said:

Every franchise gets one shot at a reboot and they need to get it right in that first shot or audiences won't return.

 

Terminator saw this happen with Genisys killing off Dark Fate before that movie was even conceived. Dark Fate didn't have many things to differentiate it's marketing from Genisys. Ghostbusters seeing that now with GB2016 being the one that should have done the "legacy sequel" thing.

 

Still weird that Sony made legacy sequels for Jumanji, Men in Black, and even Charlie's Angels but the one franchise which needed to be a legacy sequel was a complete reboot.

 

Admittedly the Jumanji sequel was fun and in many ways superior to the original. But Ghostbusters is not only great, it's a very specific tone that is difficult to recapture. It's kid-friendly but it's not a movie for kids per se. It's a horror comedy special effects hybrid that had no reason to work the way it did, and it's hard to make it work again. 

[titanic2187]

22 minutes ago, Krissykins said:

Let’s not. 
 

The 2016 film itself didn’t “leave a scar” on the brand. This new film was specifically designed carefully to cater to the people who were so upset last time. 
 

The *online* fans of the original caused all of that drama, not the film itself. 
 

And let’s hold off on calling the last film terrible when it has better reviews than this one. 

Regardless who cause the scar but no doubt that hate surrounding 2016 version was not a pleasant cultural experience. The movie itself?? It was just a harmless but forgettable movie.   

 

I have seen both. I would say I prefer this more over 2016 as this feel more adventurous and heart-warming and 2016 version was more like a action-comedy.    

[YM!]

Anyways as someone who has no interest and probably will dislike Afterlife, these numbers seem good, better than I expected I tell you that much. However, I’m not sure legs will be extraordinarily good, as I expect late holiday legs to be rough due to the wave of films, but a total around GB2016 seems likely. The fact that this made the same as GB2016 is something impressive as Ghostbusters was never that big a franchise box office wise and most things that do a reboot after a recent one tend to have a sharper decrease. 

Edited November 20, 2021 by YourMother

[Krissykins]

13 minutes ago, von Kenni said:

 

Yeah the audience loved it with 95% RT ratings and the new one got it worse with just 49% RT ratings...oh, wait.

 

I think you might be meaning RT online audience score: the new one has verified scores, which wasn’t available in 2016.

 

The last film got a B+, this one is only one point up at an A-. It’s not a huge difference, IMO. 

[filmlover]

Depending on how this one does overseas (after how poorly the '16 movie did, the expectations should be set at "not much"), perhaps the notion from earlier that the future for this franchise is a streaming series is accurate. Seems to be the way to go for property revivals that clearly have a ceiling in terms of overall audience interest at the multiplex (see also: Star Trek, which has enjoyed a nice revival in streaming after the last movie lost too much money to make future overly expensive big screen investments in that IP worth taking on). 

[TwoMisfits]

12 minutes ago, titanic2187 said:

I miss the age when drama like pursuit of happiness can gross 160m, just like many CGI-driven tentpoles.....   

 

So, yet another $4-7M adult performer, even though this aimed at a slightly different portion of that adult audience...

[Flopped]

18 minutes ago, von Kenni said:

 

Yeah the audience loved it with 95% RT ratings and the new one got it worse with just 49% RT ratings...oh, wait.

 

 

Nerdy white men control the RT and IMDB scores. Look at the IMDB top 50. It's all movies white college boys worship with posters on their walls. 

[Cmasterclay]

Just pathetic and sad for King Richard. The ultimate crowdpleaser starring one of the few draws left, and they just buried it. Buried the campaign, buried it on HBO Max. It's just so discouraging to follow it makes me want to not even post.

 

I actually think that number is quite good for Ghosbusters. A non-comedy, mediocrely reviewed Ghostbusters reboot in a pandemic (after Halloween) coming off a 46m OW reboot? Never thought it was doing 60m like some people. 42 or so would be a spectacular number.

[TwoMisfits]

So, I'm sitting here wondering why, when so few (I think me and Empire City were alone in early September) thought Ghostbusters could be a $100M+ DOM total movie 2 months ago, there's now so much disappointment when it will very likely make this milestone with this open?

 

It's got a $75M budget (I think I saw that bandied about in the movie thread)- and it will probably get to 2x budget easily WW (and who knows, maybe close to 3x) in a pandemic with a "tarnished" brand...how is this not a nice successful weekend?

 

 

[ViewerAnon]

35 minutes ago, Krissykins said:

The *online* fans of the original caused all of that drama, not the film itself. 

 

GB2016 didn’t fall less than 50% in a weekend until week 7.

 

Even removing the toxic “No damn girls!!!” Ghostbros, that movie was not terribly well-liked. Certainly far less so than Bridesmaids, The Heat, and Spy.

[von Kenni]

2 minutes ago, AJG said:

 

Last one got review bombed so its RT audience score is pretty much meaningless.

Yeah right, and the IMDB's 6.8 is a fluke I guess too even if they changed the algorithm. You can compare the ratings distributions for both and take out the review bombings and fandom points and see where the bell curve hits which tells how the general audience thinks about these movies. That you cannot review bomb or manipulate:

 

G2016

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1289401/ratings/?ref_=tt_ov_rt#void

 

GA

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4513678/ratings/?ref_=tt_ov_rt

 

I guess I'm those rare people who didn't even notice at the time the whole shit storm around G2016 but just figured out based on the trailer, its premise, and being a reboot that the movie is probably bad. When I saw it later it was exactly that. I tried to enjoy the rare few good moments in it which any of them I don't remember now, but I remember how awful the storytelling was, how the humor was off-beat, how the characters were mostly bad and the lack of development in anything. All in all I watched the recreated moments and origin story of Ghostbusters done again but just much worse than in OG. It felt like watching Blues Brothers 2000 but even that had Ray Charles and James Brown performing to give something.

 

If someone likes or even loves G2016, it's fine for me but I hope it's fine for them that I don't without being stigmatized to some additional agenda groups.

 

Also, let's not again take this discussion where it seems to be heading. It doesn't mean that we can't compare GA's performance to G2016's but let's make an extra effort to not bring extra package with. 

 

(AJG, I know you wanted some drama on the Ghostbusters thread, but I suggest that watch a film for that or some telenovelas instead of trying to create it here)

[The Wild Eric]

@von Kenni All I'm going to say is that it is in fact possible for a film to be review bombed by trolls, while also not being liked by audiences at the same time. Trust me, I was there when all of this was going down.

[Macleod]

10 minutes ago, TwoMisfits said:

So, I'm sitting here wondering why, when so few (I think me and Empire City were alone in early September) thought Ghostbusters could be a $100M+ DOM total movie 2 months ago, there's now so much disappointment when it will very likely make this milestone with this open?

 

It's got a $75M budget (I think I saw that bandied about in the movie thread)- and it will probably get to 2x budget easily WW (and who knows, maybe close to 3x) in a pandemic with a "tarnished" brand...how is this not a nice successful weekend?

 

 

Exactly.  This is not a $200 million budgeted movie.  It does not need $500 mil. WW just to break even.  Expectations should be much less.  Some are too caught up in the perception that this film needs to be a blockbuster.  But it sounds like WOM will indeed be great -- which should carry it far.  

[grim22]

12 minutes ago, TwoMisfits said:

So, I'm sitting here wondering why, when so few (I think me and Empire City were alone in early September) thought Ghostbusters could be a $100M+ DOM total movie 2 months ago, there's now so much disappointment when it will very likely make this milestone with this open?

 

It's got a $75M budget (I think I saw that bandied about in the movie thread)- and it will probably get to 2x budget easily WW (and who knows, maybe close to 3x) in a pandemic with a "tarnished" brand...how is this not a nice successful weekend?

 

 

The bigger question for this franchise was always the OS gross since GB isn't a big name IP in most OS markets - it's got recognition without a big fanbase in the OS territories which came into prominence in the past 20 years. A continuation decision will likely be an equal mix of domestic gross and OS legs. Getting the same box office as GB2016 WW might be enough to roll the dice one more time 

[The Wild Eric]

13 minutes ago, TwoMisfits said:

So, I'm sitting here wondering why, when so few (I think me and Empire City were alone in early September) thought Ghostbusters could be a $100M+ DOM total movie 2 months ago, there's now so much disappointment when it will very likely make this milestone with this open?

 

It's got a $75M budget (I think I saw that bandied about in the movie thread)- and it will probably get to 2x budget easily WW (and who knows, maybe close to 3x) in a pandemic with a "tarnished" brand...how is this not a nice successful weekend?

 

 

Simple: I was just kind of disappointed by IM here, because I kinda felt like the film would have done like 10x its previews, which it won't. Of course I didn't really account for the 4PM previews start and arguably the film getting more of a fan rush skew. And I initially kinda thought it was reaching a weekend gross in the mid-30s after Gitesh's early numbers, which was below my expectations going into the weekend. Deadline's banking on it reaching in the low 40s off Saturday matinees, and in that respect, I think that's still totally fine. Opening on par with the Feig movie on a lower budget, of course, is really, really good.

[filmlover]

12 minutes ago, ViewerAnon said:

 

GB2016 didn’t fall less than 50% in a weekend until week 7.

 

Even removing the toxic “No damn girls!!!” Ghostbros, that movie was not terribly well-liked. Certainly far less so than Bridesmaids, The Heat, and Spy.

To be fair, it did get hit hard with competition (and ultimately theater losses) week after week until it reached the point where late legs wouldn't matter. Three $50M+ openers (one of which opened well over $100M) over each of the following weeks that share plenty of audience overlap is tough for any movie to develop much in the way of staying power, unless you're an obvious sensation like a Get Out (which had insane staying power despite three 4-quadrant blockbusters of various sizes opening over the consecutive weeks).

[wildphantom]

19 minutes ago, TwoMisfits said:

So, I'm sitting here wondering why, when so few (I think me and Empire City were alone in early September) thought Ghostbusters could be a $100M+ DOM total movie 2 months ago, there's now so much disappointment when it will very likely make this milestone with this open?

 

It's got a $75M budget (I think I saw that bandied about in the movie thread)- and it will probably get to 2x budget easily WW (and who knows, maybe close to 3x) in a pandemic with a "tarnished" brand...how is this not a nice successful weekend?

 

 

I thought it would do $100 million too once I heard the CinemaCon reaction. Its date allows for it to have room to take full advantage of families with time off to get it there. 

[The Wild Eric]

1 minute ago, filmlover said:

To be fair, it did get hit hard with competition (and ultimately theater losses) week after week until it reached the point where late legs wouldn't matter. Three $50M+ openers (one of which opened well over $100M) over each of the following weeks that share plenty of audience overlap is tough for any movie to develop much in the way of staying power, unless you're an obvious sensation like a Get Out (which had insane staying power despite three 4-quadrant blockbusters of various sizes opening over the consecutive weeks).

Sigh. I remember when Star Trek Beyond and Jason Bourne were neck-and-neck and there was a friendly rivalry on the boards. Those were the days.