The upcoming Ghostbusters: Afterlife 2 is the franchise’s most important movie in four decades. The highly-anticipated blockbuster will be the follow-up to 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife and is scheduled to premiere in theaters worldwide on December 20, 2023. The movie will mark the fifth installment in the Ghostbusters franchise following the original’s release in 1984 which became an American cultural phenomenon. However, despite numerous follow-ups and additional installments, it’s Afterlife 2 that may well be the biggest movie since the original.
After the initial success of the original Ghostbusters movie, none of its sequels have been able to generate the same degree of popularity or critical acclaim. Ghostbusters II suffered from the inescapable expectations and high standards set by its predecessor. It also lacked a compelling story that relied too heavily on cheap comedy and ultimately lost focus on character development. 2016’s Ghostbusters replaced the iconic characters with some of the funniest comedians of the 2010s but failed to capture the same charm as the original. Ghostbusters: Afterlife presented an intriguing update to the franchise that must be continued in the upcoming Ghostbusters 5.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife 2 Can’t Rely On 1980s Nostalgia
Ghostbusters: Afterlife featured the return of the original movie’s central cast and as a whole depended on familiar 1980s nostalgic themes to win audiences over. While Afterlife arguably found a satisfying balance between new and old elements of the franchise, Ghostbusters: Afterlife 2 will not be able to rely on those same narrative tactics. Afterlife 2 features almost an entirely youthful cast including Mckenna Grace and Finn Wolfhard that must carry the bulk of the film’s plot, action, and character development if the franchise has any chance of building a solid foundation moving forward. This move away and passing of the baton makes it hugely important.
An updated frozen version of the iconic Ghostbusters logo suggests that the franchise will be taking a new direction in an effort to make a major step forward. It could imply that Afterlife 2 will be holiday-themed which would make sense given its late December release date. This could inspire an additional audience pool of moviegoers who are looking for something holiday-themed. The addition of several new members of the Ghostbuster’s 5 cast including Kumail Nanjiani, Patton Oswald, and James Acaster also contributes to the notion that the film will aim to develop new characters that will modernize the franchise and separate it from its nostalgic roots.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife 2 Needs To Succeed
The significance of the new Ghostbusters sequel for the future of the franchise cannot be understated. Since 2016’s reboot was a complete miss, the franchise has backed itself into a hole with its potential Afterlife trilogy. If Afterlife 2 fails to revitalize the Ghostbusters legacy, it will inevitably place the franchise in an even more difficult situation than it was after the underwhelming release of Ghostbusters II. There is seemingly nowhere else to go creatively in the Ghostbusters universe if Afterlife 2 is a dud or fails to attract enough of an audience to theaters in December 2023.
For Ghostbusters: Afterlife 2 to be a hit, it will probably have to win the box office race on its opening weekend. The film will be facing some stiff competition from a handful of other highly-anticipated movies that will be released in theaters in mid-to-late December such as Wonka and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. The original Ghostbusters remains to be the highest-grossing installment in the franchise, having accumulated over $295 million at the global box office. If Afterlife 2 can show early signs of approaching that number during its first weeks in theaters, it will be a crucial indicator for the franchise’s future.
Ghostbusters 2 Set A Bad Precedent For Sequels
Despite Ghostbusters II falling short in comparison to the quality of the original film, it was still relatively successful at the global box office. If the movie had been executed better, it might have even surpassed the original in total revenue. It generated double the opening weekend totals of its predecessor but eventually ran out of steam in domestic theaters, plateauing only four weeks after its release.
Ghostbusters II effectively killed the momentum that the original had started five years prior, resulting in its lowest domestic box office totals of the entire Ghostbusters franchise. This set a bad precedent for the sequels, the first of which waited over 25 years before revisiting the franchise. If Ghostbusters: Afterlife 2 disappoints similarly to the failure of Ghostbusters II and the 2016 reboot, it could effectively destroy the trajectory of the franchise for years, even decades, to come, highlighting it’s potential significance for the entire Ghostbusters series beyond one standalone movie
