Sony boss Tom Rothman has said that Jason Reitman’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife played a major part in saving the franchise. Unlike Paul Feig’s polarizing 2016 all-female Ghostbusters reboot, Sony took the tried-and-tested Star Wars route and made Ghostbusters: Afterlife a legacy sequel. Directed and co-written by Reitman, son of original Ghostbusters director the late Ivan Reitman, the movie focuses on Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis)’s estranged family as they inherit his decrepit Oklahoma farmhouse after his death.
Though their mother Callie (Carrie Coon) disapproves, Spengler’s grandchildren Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) and Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) soon discover their ghost-busting heritage thanks to Phoebe’s summer school science teacher, Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd). Together, they must team up with some of Summerville’s other residents (and, eventually, the remaining original Ghostbusters) in order to save the world from Gozer the Gozerian. Ghostbusters: Afterlife may have been one of the blockbusters hit hardest by COVID-19 after it was delayed no less than four times, but was generally positively received when it finally premiered.
Now, Rothman has stated that Afterlife saved the Ghosbusters franchise after two poorly received sequels to the 1984 original. In an interview with Deadline, the Sony chairman and CEO stated that when he first took over Sony in 2015, the studio’s reputation was that it had no intellectual property (IP) to make movies with. However, Rothman argued it actually had “fantastic” IP, including Ghostbusters. The Sony boss then implied that though the 2016 reboot “didn’t work out that well,” because of Ivan and Jason Reitman, Afterlife was a “tremendous success.” Read his full quote below:
“When I took over Sony, it was said, oh, Sony has no IP. Not true. We actually had fantastic IP. We just needed to focus on it. We had Jumanji, Bad Boys, Uncharted. Ghostbusters, another example. Just before I got here, they took a turn down a road that didn’t work out that well. But because of Jason Reitman and his relationship with Ivan, may he rest in peace, we were able to resuscitate that into a tremendous success, both theatrically and in home entertainment.”
Feig’s 2016 Ghostbusters reboot, though it received mixed reviews, was considered by many to be an entertaining, funny and unique addition to the franchise. Unfortunately, the established and talented female comedians that made up its core cast (Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones) experienced a significant amount of online backlash when they took over the iconic Ghostbusters roles, much of which was sexist in nature. What’s more, it is not considered by some to be part of the Ghostbusters canon, unlike Afterlife, which leans heavily into nostalgia and the first films. Afterlife also included lots of fan service, featuring cameos from the original cast while simultaneously introducing loveable new characters. As Phoebe clearly inherited a love of science and awkward wit from her grandfather, Afterlife‘s intergenerational approach had a heartwarming effect on many audiences when taken alongside the father-son team of the Reitmans.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife was undoubtedly a success for both Jason Reitman and Sony, effectively reviving the original Ghostbusters legacy after some disappointment. Sony recently announced that a sequel, Ghostbusters 5, is officially in development. The continuation of the franchise certainly seems to prove Rothman’s comments, indicating that Ghostbusters: Afterlife successfully brought a new generation of audiences to the iconic sci-fi universe in a way that the 2016 reboot was unfortunately not able to. As long as the studio, and whoever is tapped to be the next film’s director, continue to find a balance between nostalgia and original, exciting new ideas, the future of Ghostbusters looks bright.
