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‘Ghostbusters,’ ‘Ghostbusters: Answer the Call’ and ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’Sony and Ghetty
Sony has already announced a sequel to Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife returned in April at some point of their CinemaCon presentation, however now we know that it’ll open theatrically on Wednesday, December 20, 2023. That places it proper among Warner Bros. Discovery’s Wonka (December 15) and Paramount’s theoretical Star Trek 4 and Disney’s very *theoretical* Star Wars: Rogue Squadron both dated for December 22. Well, next Christmas now has its Greatest Showman/Mary Poppins Returns and its Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle/Bumblebee. I wager either Star Trek 4 or Rogue Squadron get to be the Aquaman/Spider-Man: No Way Home, except neither movie makes the slot and, I don’t recognize, Disney just dates Avatar 3 a yr after Avatar: The Way of Water.
Reitman and Kenan confirmed all through this month’s “Ghostbusters Day” that the sequel might go back to New York City and prominently feature the authentic firehouse vicinity. The untitled film, which in all likelihood will now not be titled The Last Ghostbuster, will try to capitalize on the plain commercial achievement ($204 million on a $75 million budget on a Covid curve is right sufficient) and desire that A) audiences weren’t simply curious the primary time and B) the filmmakers can thread what appears to be a totally Last Jedi-like needle. I will expect the core actors (Mckenna Grace, Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon and Finn Wolfhard) will return alongside Ernie Hudson and possibly Dan Aykroyd (given that he’s a true believer inside the franchise and the supernatural).
I’m guessing Bill Murray gained’t do more than a cameo, because the handiest thing greater painful than watching Murray roll his eyes thru his Ghostbusters: Answer the Call cameo was looking him maintain his nose all through the Afterlife climax. Harold Ramis died in 2014, however that didn’t stop Spangler from displaying up from “past the grave,” even though I’d desire that every one events recognise you could simplest get away with that once. More hard may be the way to make a sequel that facilities on the new forged (because, yes, the film changed into a success each due to the fact the lovers favored it and as it played to newcomers or agnostics like a decent youngster-centric fable journey) and takes the, uh, mythology, in new guidelines with out coping with fan backlash.
To be honest, for the reason that The Last Jedi earned rave reviews, an A from Cinemascore and $1.333 billion global, perhaps the huge task may be convincing Sony to ignore whatever online backlash develops. Reitman and Kenan are true filmmakers who absolutely don’t want to make a sequel that merely is going via the motions once more remaking Ghostbusters (or Ghostbusters II), and I assume they need to make a film that looks like a “subsequent chapter” within the lives of the Spengler family whatever the hell which means. However, that is an incarnation of Ghostbusters that exists partly due to online backlash, particularly the absurd sexist and racist warfare waged towards Paul Feig and Katie Dippold’s Ghostbusters lower back in 2016.
That movie cost $one hundred forty four million (even though the money is at the display screen), but it turned into handiest a flop because distant places audiences didn’t care. Answer the Call earned $126 million domestic and $229 million global whilst Afterlife earned $128 million/$204 million. It’s not possible no longer to view Ghostbusters: Afterlife (which worked as a movie) as a response to the outcry and an instance of giving some uncool lovers exactly what they wanted. Now the movie is a success and we’re getting a sequel. Will or not it’s a reprise of Star Wars in which “enthusiasts” are okay with a young lady lead while she changed into anchored and accredited with the aid of authentic franchise characters only to rise up while the sequel questions the dogma and places her on her own route?
We’ll find out while Ghostbusters four (or some thing) opens theatrically on December 20, 2023. And in a global wherein every fandom has become a cross among a sports activities fanbase and a cult, and each assets has fractured fanbases which include human beings with regularly-conflicting ideas of what the IP need to represent, nicely, we may be doomed to perpetual popular culture civil struggle for the immediate future. Unless, of path, Hollywood in the end realizes that the loud vocal minorities on “both aspects” (right-wing YouTube backlash didn’t stop Captain Marvel from incomes $1.128 billion than leftist Film Twitter stopped Bohemian Rhapsody from incomes $905 million) are simply that. Most widespread audiences need a new film or display within a acquainted bundle. As usually, we’ll see.
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