What happens in Hollywood, stays in Hollywood. At least that’s typically the case.
Outside of having to battle fans over the female-led cast, Sony’s Columbia Pictures also was stuck trying to recoup a massive budget for their Ghostbusters reboot. The blockbuster starring Kate McKinnon, Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, and Leslie Jones cost a whopping $144 million, only to take in $230 million globally. Without knowing the actual financial breakdown, an educated guess places this at a at least a $100 million loss.
Sony played it cool, boasting the film as a success and promising an animated feature and a sequel in the near future. Yet, things have been silent since the film’s release last July. Now, producer Dan Aykroyd has publicly opened up about the film, chastizing director Paul Feig for allowing the budget to balloon out of control.
“The girls are great in it. Kate McKinnon, Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig – what a wonderful, wonderful players they are – and Leslie Jones. I was really happy with the movie, but it cost too much. And Sony does not like to lose money. It made a lot of money around the world but just cost too much, making it economically not feasible to do another one. So that’s too bad – the director, he spent too much on it. He didn’t shoot scenes we suggested to him and several scenes that were going to be needed and he said ‘nah, we don’t need them.’ Then we tested the movie and they needed them and he had to go back. About $30 to $40 million in reshoots. So he will not be back on the Sony lot anytime soon.”
Don't hold back, Dan. #Ghostbusters pic.twitter.com/WtZ0MbRsmk
— Ross Maclean (@ross_maclean) June 4, 2017
Savage.
What’s even worse is that even if $40 million were shaved off the total budget, you’re looking at a loss. Nothing could have saved Ghostbusters, although the sheer amount that they lost really has made it hard to see them ever pulling the trigger on a sequel. In fact, if I’m hearing Aykroyd correctly, it sounds as if Sony has already decided not to move forward on a sequel.
On the other hand, Ivan Reitman stated just three months ago that they have “jumped into an animated film and are developing live-action films,” which suggests they’re just trying to reconfigure their plans for the universe (ahem, budget) before moving forward on more ghost bustin’. But one thing is for certain, however…Feig won’t be involved.
