Unless you’ve been living under a rock, in a coma, or just figured out how to read in the past 20 minutes, it should come as no surprise to you that the recent Ghostbusters movie is on track to lose a shitload of money. Considering the craptacular Fall Out Boy remake of the iconic Ghostbusters song, plus the fact that the trailer is officially the most disliked movie trailer in history on YouTube, anyone with half a brain could’ve told Hollywood that audiences wouldn’t be too keen on shelling out $13.50 to see a film that literally no one asked for.
But just how much money is the film on track to lose? According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film needed to earn $300 million worldwide in order to break even. As of August 7th, Ghostbusters had earned “just under $180 million at the global box office, including $117 million domestic.” THR notes that the film has yet to open in France, Japan and Mexico, however “box-office experts say it will have trouble getting to $225 million despite a hefty net production budget of $144 million plus a big marketing spend.” In other words, it sounds like Ghostbusters definitely got burned from all the negativity spouting from those who resented the fact that it featured an all-female cast. Maybe it would’ve done better as a horror movie?
Nah, probably not.
At one point Sony was even reportedly hoping to create a live-action Ghostbusters universe, a plan that now appears to have crashed, burned, been shat on by a herd of grazing cows and then repurposed as manure. According to The Hollywood Reporter:
Sony won’t comment on whether it has banished a sequel to the netherworld, but perhaps tellingly, a rep says the studio actively is pursuing an animated Ghostbusters feature that could hit theaters in 2019 and an animated TV series, Ghostbusters: Ecto Force, which is eyeing an early 2018 bow. Both are being guided by Reitman, who firmly is back in charge of theGhostbusters empire via Ghost Corps., a subsidiary with a mandate to expand the brand across platforms. (It was former Sony film chief Amy Pascal who first embraced Feig’s vision for the live-action reboot, not Reitman or Rothman.)
… “Ghostbusters is on ice until further notice,” says box-office analyst Jeff Bock. “I just can’t fathom the creative talents behind it — Feig, McCarthy, Wiig, etc. — slogging out another one when the reception to the first one was so mediocre.”
It’s worth noting, however, that Sony disputes that they’re on track to lose $70 million, stating that “With multiple revenue streams, including consumer products, gaming, location-based entertainment, continued international rollout, and huge third-party promotional partnerships that mitigated costs, the bottom line, even before co-financing, is not remotely close to that number.”
Yeah sure, sounds JUST LIKE something someone who’s on the verge of taking a $70 million loss would say. Spin me another yarn, would ya?
Now Watch: What You Need To Know About The New Ghostbusters Movie
[Via The Hollywood Reporter]