Ghostbusters: Afterlife Is Being Beaten By The All-Female Remake
While 2016's Ghostbusters was a commercial failure, it is still beating Ghostbusters: Afterlife in a key area.
This article is more than 2 years old
Ahead of its worldwide release, early reviews for Ghostbusters: Afterlife are already stacking up. Currently, the film holds an approval rating of 67% on Rotten Tomatoes. The film is a sequel to 1984’s Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II, which was released in 1989. It ignores the events that took place in Paul Feig’s female-led reboot, starring Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones, and Kate McKinnon. But interestingly, while the latter was a commercial failure, it is still beating Ghostbusters: Afterlife.
Ghostbusters (2016) holds an all-time approval rating of 74% on Rotten Tomatoes, which beats the critics’ score of not just Ghostbusters: Afterlife but also that of Ghostbusters II. Ghostbusters: Afterlife features McKenna Grace, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, and Paul Rudd, with Bill Murray, Sigourney Weaver, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, and Annie Potts reprising their roles from the original films. As stated above, it continues the story of the first two films and features a single mother and her two children who have to save the world from terrifying paranormal threats with the aid of the ghostbusters.
But despite bringing back the majority of the original cast, Ghostbusters: Afterlife has been unable to raise its number of positive reviews. Though the film has been praised for successfully reviving the franchise, it has been criticized for relying too much on using nostalgia to reel in the fans of the original films. On the other hand, 2016’s Ghostbusters reboot enjoyed majorly positive reviews with critics praising its use of comedy and all-female cast. And yet, it ended up being a box office bomb that only made $230 million at the worldwide box office, which was very low considering the massive investment made in making and promoting the film. The film reportedly had a budget of $144 million.
Back in 2016, long before the reboot’s release, director Paul Feig had assured fans that he would be directing a sequel soon. At the time, a reboot was planned because Bill Murray refused to commit to a third film in the series. Thus Sony Pictures pinned its hopes on the reboot instead but it ended up being controversial among fans who either panned it for not matching up to the standards of the original films or criticized it for tampering with its legacy by going for an all-female cast. This led the studio to shelve all plans of ever making a sequel to the film and soon Jason Reitman, son of Ivan Reitman who directed the first two films, was hired to direct Ghostbusters: Afterlife.
But even though Ghostbusters: Afterlife is here and will probably get a sequel, rumor is that the studio is still very much interested in giving the female Ghostbusters a second chance in the franchise. The news was reported by digital creator Daniel Richtman who shared the same on his Patreon account. While there has been no official confirmation of the same, if Sony ever decides to revisit the female Ghostbusters Paul Feig is more than ready to get on board. In 2019, Feig told the Guardian that he would like to make a sequel “if anybody ever wanted it.”
As for the critics’ score of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, there is still much room for improvement (or deterioration). Currently, the film has only 79 reviews compared to the 390 reviews the 2016 reboot’s rating was based on. It also remains to be seen what audience score the film will bring in as Ghostbusters majorly failed in that section.
