‘GHOSTBUSTERS’ BLOCKBUSTER?
Question for the day: Will the Melissa McCarthy-Kristen Wiig “Ghostbusters,” hitting theaters next weekend, be enshrined in the summer blockbuster hall of fame — or will it set back women’s reboot rights for generations?
The made-in-Mass. comedy has generated controversy since director Paul Feig announced he would remake the beloved Bill Murray-Dan Aykroyd classic with an allfemale cast. It is Sony’s biggest release of the summer and has been getting a huge marketing push with posters, ads — especially during the NBA Finals — and related merchandise.
But the flick has been stalked by internet haters, who are ballistic over the lead roles being taken on by women — McCarthy, Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones. And the first trailer for the reboot was the most disliked preview in YouTube history. Add to that the fact that the reboot of the classic “Ghostbusters” theme song with Fall Out Boy and Missy Elliott was terrible, and Sony has good reason to be afraid of its Ghosts.
The movie was made in Massachusetts last summer, although it is set in New York, and Feig was given a healthy $154 million budget on expectations that it would be as big as the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man at this summer’s box office. The first “Ghostbusters” raked in nearly $300 million in 1984, making it a bona fide summer blockbuster. But the reboot, maybe not so much.
The scary news for Sony is that most box office predictors are estimating the 2016 “Ghostbusters” will make $130 million domestically, with a rather tame opening weekend haul of $40 million to $50 million. That hardly qualifies as blockbuster material. And it wouldn’t even put it near the top of Massachusetts’ biggest hits.
Just for some perspective, the term “blockbuster” was coined to describe a certain made-in-Mass. summer box office behemoth in 1975: Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws.”
“Jaws” was the first film to get a wide release and it made $7 million the first weekend. It went on to gross a whopping $470 million worldwide — the highest grossing film of the time. In today’s dollars that would be about $2 billion.
Other locally made blockbusters include 2012’s “Ted,” starring Mark Wahlberg and a foul-mouthed, pot-smoking, skirtchasing stuffed bear. That Seth MacFarlane flick grossed nearly $550 million domestically making it Mass.’ biggest blockbuster since “Jaws.”
Honorable mentions go to 2000’s “The Perfect Storm” with George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg that was filmed in Gloucester ($328 million domestically); 2009’s “The Proposal” with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds, filmed on the North Shore ($317 million); 2006’s “The Departed” filmed in Boston with Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon ($290 million); Paul Feig’s last made-in-Boston effort, 2013’s “The Heat” with Bullock and McCarthy ($229 million); and 1997’s Damon- Ben Affleck debut “Good Will Hunting,” ($226 million).
File Under: Blockbuster or Bust?