No decision made yet on ‘Ghostbusters’ in China — Sony

Ghostbusters won’t be shown in China, according to reports in both EW and The Hollywood Reporter. But Sony says it hasn’t formally submitted the film to the China board that approves foreign films for screening in the country. The film, which was originally released in 1984, is centered on four women trying to battle with over 1,000 wayward ghosts in New York City. (And in doing so, posed the question of why they didn’t go with that phenomenal title in the first place.) But even that may be to no avail; the censors can be strict in what can and cannot be screened for the public. That’s meant bans for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (ghosts and cannibalism) and Crimson Peak for its ghoulish themes. The Disney movie Zootopia earned $235.5 million, the largest amount of the year by a Hollywood movie.

“It’s been confirmed that Ghostbusters won’t be coming to China, because they think it’s not really that attractive to Chinese audiences”, said one Chinese executive.

The country has some very odd and obscure laws about depicting the supernatural in movies which has led to several films being banned in the past, and Sony took steps to try to ensure they dodged that bullet by re-titling the picture 超能敢死队, which translates to “Super Power Dare Die Team“. The original Ghostbusters, starring Bill Murray, was not released in China.

The movie cost a not insubstantial $144 million to make (£108 million), and while box office analysts are expecting the Paul Feig-helmed film to open to as much as $50 million on its opening weekend in the U.S., it would have benefitted hugely from the Chinese market.

The official trailer can be viewed in the link below.