Ghostbusters May Be Facing a $70 Million Box-Office Loss

Melissa McCarthy;Kristen Wiig;Leslie Jones;Kate McKinnon
Photo: Hopper Stone/CTMG, Inc.

You can lead an audience to a vortex to the underworld, but you can’t make them watch. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Ghostbusters’ current global box office is $180 million and, while it has yet to open in France, Japan, and Mexico, will likely struggle to get to $225 million. Sony apparently previously said $300 million would constitute breaking even. The hit is allegedly large enough to put the kibosh on a live-action sequel; an animated movie and the animated series Ghostbusters: Ecto Force are being developed in its stead. However, while ticket sales are disappointing, Sony maintains that reports of Ghostbusters’ financial death have been greatly exaggerated. “This loss calculation is way off,” the studio told THR. “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.” After all the uproar and fan debate, looks like the reboot was missing the one thing that made the original a success: a scene in which a ghost gives Dan Aykroyd a blow job.

Ghostbusters May Be Facing a Big Box-Office Loss