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Sony Greenlights Sequel to Ghostbusters: Afterlife

ManaByte

Member

After the success of “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” and “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” this past fall, Sony Pictures CEO Tom Rothman announced at CinemaCon on Monday night that sequels for both franchises have been greenlit.
“Ghostbusters: Afterlife” had a more modest box office run but still did well domestically with $129.3 million grossed in North America and $197.3 million worldwide. The upcoming sequel was described as “the next chapter in the original ‘Ghostbusters’ universe” after a post-credits scene in “Afterlife” in which original Ghostbuster Winston Zeddermore, played by Ernie Hudson, teased a possible reunion with his teammates.

The fetid corpse that they called Ghostbusters in 2016 didn’t get a sequel, but it did win a Kid’s Choice award!
 

ManaByte

Member
I just watched Afterlife last weekend. Was definitely fun but a little heavy handed on the nostalgia.

Fun fact, "Wokebusters" 2016 made about $30 million more in 2016 than Afterlife in 2021. Add another $20 million or so for inflation adjustment compared to 2021.
It also cost a lot more than Afterlife did, so it was a flop.
 

Ionian

Member
Afterlife was a cool movie! Glad its getting another outing.

Wokebusters rightfully fell on its face.

Wokebusters, i'm stealing that!

(I didn't mind the film but it was very stupid)

Ghostbusters talk about Vaginas. Very very stupid. Plus no smiler, only a fat chick talking about food.
 

MastaKiiLA

Member
Unpopular opinion: GB 2016 was better than GB:A. It ain't by much, but one had some funny moment, and the other had Finn Wolfhard.

I personally didn't care than 2016 was all female, I think it failed because it tried to retread the first movie, while making almost every aspect of said replication worse. But Afterlife was straight up boring. I fell asleep about 1/3 of the way through, and then woke up to see them dragging the ghost of Harold Ramis. After they failed to make GB3 decades ago, they should've just let the franchise be. Or, they should have stuck with the all-girl reboot, but NOT ape the first movie so hard. There is no way to better a classic, so the 2016 film should've been its own story.
 

The Skull

Member
Nice. Get it back to New York and get a fresh new baddy from the series. Samhain or boogeyman would be great.
 

kurisu_1974

is on perm warning for being a low level troll
Wokebusters we knew what we were getting into, Afterlife was just disappointingly bad. Just leave the franchise alone or make a spin off TV series or something.
 
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OmegaSupreme

advanced basic bitch
I just watched Afterlife last weekend. Was definitely fun but a little heavy handed on the nostalgia.

Fun fact, "Wokebusters" 2016 made about $30 million more in 2016 than Afterlife in 2021. Add another $20 million or so for inflation adjustment.

Afterlife : https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl319391233/
Ghostbusters 2016: https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl3679815169/
Ghostbusters (2016):
Budget: $144M
Box Office: $229M

Afterlife (2021):
Budget: $75M (almost half)
Box Office: $197M

Even with Covid, Afterlife was a much bigger hit than the 2016 movie.

2016 flopped and was far from doubling its budget at the BO.
2021 movie was $20M from tripling its budget at the BO.
 
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AJUMP23

Member
Afterlife was a fun nostalgia trip, but it wasn't the satire and humor of the original film. SO something needs to change if they want to make it sustainable. Ghostbusting in a city.
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
I want 100% less old guys stumbling around on set and 200% MORE GHOSTBUSTING.

1 brief scene of Akeryod giving the kids the exposition on whatever big bad they are fighting, a glorious death for Murray as the movie opener, and maybe 2 scenes tops of Hudson dispensing wisdom and signing checks for the kids to set up their GB shop with new gear. Move on from Raimis and pretty much all the adult stuff. Return this to classic 80's style youth dramady films where adults are useless, the kids are wise beyond their years, and kids can run around with nucular powered gear smashing shit up with no consequences :p
 

sol_bad

Member
Hopefully it goes for a more comedic spin. I also agree that the 2016 film is better, it identifies with the original film much more.
 

Doom85

Member
I’m so confused as to what qualifies as “nostalgic” and what qualifies as “original“ these days according to some people.

So the third act of Afterlife is apparently “over reliant on nostalgia”? I liked it in spite of that, but fair enough. But now people are demanding the cast be all adults again and go back to a city setting? Which would make the next movie less original as that would mean imitating the prior films again (hell, Ghostbusters 2 even had a lot of plot structure similar to 1) and yet people are okay with that being similar? It feels like people just pick randomly which elements should be recycled and which elements need to be changed, and then proceed to complain when the new movie didn’t magically predict which was which.

James Franco GIF


I mean, 2016 had adults and a city. Just saying. And while I thought it was a so-so film, I also see Afterlife as a much better film in comparison and I’m pretty sure most of the fanbase agree with the latter part.
 

Catphish

Member
I liked Afterlife. The end was a tad cringy, but the movie’s heart was in the right place, and that matters to me. Makes it easier to overlook its shortcomings.

Looking forward to the next one.
 
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I’m so confused as to what qualifies as “nostalgic” and what qualifies as “original“ these days according to some people.

So the third act of Afterlife is apparently “over reliant on nostalgia”? I liked it in spite of that, but fair enough. But now people are demanding the cast be all adults again and go back to a city setting? Which would make the next movie less original as that would mean imitating the prior films again (hell, Ghostbusters 2 even had a lot of plot structure similar to 1) and yet people are okay with that being similar? It feels like people just pick randomly which elements should be recycled and which elements need to be changed, and then proceed to complain when the new movie didn’t magically predict which was which.

James Franco GIF


I mean, 2016 had adults and a city. Just saying. And while I thought it was a so-so film, I also see Afterlife as a much better film in comparison and I’m pretty sure most of the fanbase agree with the latter part.

2016 had plenty of problems, but adults and a city weren't it.
 

Doom85

Member
I haven't seen Afterlife yet, but this just screams "Hollywood has no ideas anymore."

This month alone had Everything Everwhere All at Once, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, and The Northman come out. So not sure about that one, chief.

And if a 5th movie in a franchise screams that, well I guess Hollywood was “out of ideas” already decades ago as James Bond, multiple slasher franchises, Planet of the Apes, Star Trek, Muppets, etc. hit those numbers long before Ghostbusters did, and far more quickly too.

But I guess it was cool for franchises to be milked to death in the 70’s/80’s/90’s as opposed to now where it’s forbidden because…….

Jerry Seinfeld Reaction GIF
 

WoJ

Member
This month alone had Everything Everwhere All at Once, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, and The Northman come out. So not sure about that one, chief.

And if a 5th movie in a franchise screams that, well I guess Hollywood was “out of ideas” already decades ago as James Bond, multiple slasher franchises, Planet of the Apes, Star Trek, Muppets, etc. hit those numbers long before Ghostbusters did, and far more quickly too.

But I guess it was cool for franchises to be milked to death in the 70’s/80’s/90’s as opposed to now where it’s forbidden because…….

Jerry Seinfeld Reaction GIF
Wow you sure showed me.
 

StormCell

Member
I would be all in favor of a sequel-esque reboot, which is to say that this would be a new beginning while at the same time preserving the history and heritage of the original Ghostbusters. There would be a sort of send off. It's totally cool with me for Egon's grand daughter to be at the center of this, just please no more Finn Wolfhard. And since the grand daughter is really still too young to be a full time working class goon, she can fade into the backdrop for this next story. Have to remember, however, that she is a smart one, and without a Spangler you really have no Ghostbusters. I definitely would not lose her entirely, as she would play a bigger role in a couple of movies later on.

This next movie should strike a much more serious chord. It's going to require a more mature cast with plenty of cynicism mixed with a dash of disdain for the academia while maintaining a sort of pseudo-science superiority complex...
 

Pejo

Member
I'd rather they do another spinoff and this time not focused around kids, but it wasn't the worst Ghostbusters movie that came out in the last decade, so it's fine.
 

Fbh

Member
Didn't really like Afterlife.
The main girl was really annoying, I've always disliked smartass kid characters. I get that they wanted to maker her like Egon....but there's a reason Egon wasn't the main focus of the original movie. The supporting cast was bland, Paul Rudd and that Stranger Things kid felt like they were just thrown in there there because they are known faces but they do little for the actual story. And it relied way too much on nostalgia.

A sequel could be ok if they focus less on the girl (or make her less annoying), improve the supporting cast and stop pandering to nostalgia. We don't need Vigo to be the bad guy.
 

Billbofet

Member
I hope this next one has a joke or two in it. It was just too wrapped up in every damn callback being deep, magical, and meaningful.
Safe to assume it copies the entire third act of Ghostbusters 2, beat for beat, like Afterlife?
 
I'm a bit surprised people actually like this movie.

I watched it hoping for a good movie and I really wanted to like it. It was a snore-fest, there was hardly any comedy whatsoever and a boring story that just rehashes the first movie somewhat.

I was actually really disappointed and I didn't expect it to be that bad.

Hopefully the sequel is a lot better.
 
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Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius
Saw afterlife. Was pleasantly surprised. Yeah it’s just nostalgia but it’s still fun.
For the sequel they will not be able to have Egon’s moving last day and work behind the scenes to keep the big bad evil at bay and the relationship with his estranged family to make the movie around, without Ghostbusters nostalgia and that big emotional pull post Ramis’s death it will be interesting what they base that movie on.
 

sol_bad

Member
I haven't seen Afterlife yet, but this just screams "Hollywood has no ideas anymore."

I'm so sick of reading this on forums. Stop whining about it and just support the new ideas in cinemas. And yes, there are tonnes of movies with original ideas. Just look at A24 movies to begin with.

And make sure you support Bullet Train in cinemas when it gets released for example. Go watch The Lost City right now in cinemas.

Moonfall
Ambulance
Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Northman
Father Stu
Men
Watcher
Shotgun Wedding
Black Phone
After Yang
On The Count of Three
Secret Headquarters
The Man From Toronto
 
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