‘Ghostbusters’ sequel unlikely after box office loss; animated series in the works

Now, the movie stands at $180 million at the global box office, which is barely above half of what it was supposed to make, and means the studio should brace themselves for a loss of about $70 million. “While nothing has been officially announced yet, there’s no doubt in my mind it will happen”, said Rory Bruer, president of worldwide distribution at Sony.

A sequel to the recent Ghostbusters reboot is now looking unlikely. Purists angered by the decision to reboot the franchise instead of produce a sequel mounted a similarly aggressive, public campaign to derail the film well before it hit theaters, creating a flawless storm of negative buzz.

“We’re very proud of the bold movie Paul Feig made, which critics and audiences loved”, a studio rep told THR. Considering the film’s inflated $144 million production budget and significant marketing costs, Sony needed to reach at least $300 million to make a small profit.

Of course, that also brings us back to the general anti-remake/reboot/sequel feeling now opposing Hollywood, which made up most of the backlash against Ghostbusters.

According to BoxOfficeMojo.com, Ghostbusters took in 7 million worldwide a month after its release on July 15th. It’s unsure what the future of Ghostbusters holds at the moment, but despite it causing Sony to lose a lot of money, this likely won’t be the last we’ve seen of Ghostbusters, on the big screen or otherwise.

The studio has plans for a sequel which will bring back Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones, and Kate McKinnon, are all reportedly signed on for two more films. Sony is, however, looking into a potential 2019 Ghostbusters animated feature and a TV show called Ghostbusters: Ecto Force, which could collectively represent a nail in the current universe’s coffin.

According to box office analyst Jeff Bock, “Ghostbusters is on ice until further notice”, as he doesn’t believe the creative team behind the 2016 reboot will be up for “slogging out another one when the reception to the first one was so mediocre”.