The announcement of a new Ghostbusters movie that ignored the previous cannon was met with a huge negative response, yet when it was released in mid-July, Sony President of Worldwide distribution Rory Bruer declared “While nothing has been officially announced yet, there’s no doubt in my mind it [A Sequel] will happen.”
They haven’t really mentioned a sequel since…
Reports now indicate that currently Ghostbusters had earned just under $180 million at the global box office. To be fair it still has to open in France, Japan and Mexico but looks nowhere near to reaching what it hoped to get, as production costs alone were $144 million. You then need to factor in the advertising and marketing budget. Experts state the film needs to hit $300 million to break even.
Sony film chief Tom Rothman and his team, along with partner Village Roadshow, had high hopes for launching a live-action Ghostbusters “universe.” Now they are preparing for steep losses (think $70 million-plus) and an uncertain future for the franchise. It should be noted that former Sony film chief Amy Pascal who first embraced Feig’s vision for the live-action reboot, not Ivan Reitman or Rothman.
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 debut. Both are being guided by Reitman, who firmly is back in charge of the Ghostbusters empire via Ghost Corps., a subsidiary with a mandate to expand the brand across platforms.
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