Box Office: ‘Ghostbusters’ Debuts to $46 Million | Variety 

Ghostbusters” reboot has triggered intense debate over its decision to refashion the proton pack-wielding paranormal investigators as an all-female team.

For some, the movie has been a feminist rallying cry; for others, a pop culture desecration. It’s also provided ample opportunity for internet trolls to engage in some misogyny.

After all the chatter and the gender politics, “Ghostbusters” debuted this weekend to a solid $46 million from 3,962 locations. Sony hailed the results as evidence that audiences were responding to its new take on the decades-old property. But though it ranks as the best debut for a live-action comedy in over a year, the film will have to show some endurance, as well as resonate with foreign audiences, to make a profit. After all, dusting off the ectoplasm was expensive, with Sony shelling out $144 million to make “Ghostbusters” and millions more to market the film. That tops what most comedies cost to produce and distribute.

Sony has been trying to get another “Ghostbusters” off the ground for decades, but it has often been the victim of original star Bill Murray’s mercurial vetting process. The new picture, which brings together Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones, is clearly designed to trigger a fresh array of sequels.

“There absolutely will be more [films],” said Josh Greenstein, Sony’s marketing and distribution chief. “This is a restart of one of our most important brands.”

The audience for the film skewed female, with women making up 54% of ticket buyers. It also resonated more strongly with older crowds, weaned on the 1984 original and its 1989 sequel, as 55% of the audience clocked in over the age of 25. Despite Greenstein’s optimism, some analysts argued the results were underwhelming.

“Unless it has massive legs, any opening under $50 million is not a triumph,” said Jeff Bock, an analyst with Exhibitor Relations. “It’s still an asterisk. The next two weeks will tell the tale.”

“Ghostbusters” was no match for Illumination and Universal’s “The Secret Life of Pets,” which dominated the box office for a second consecutive weekend, topping all challengers with $50.6 million. The look at what dogs, cats and other domesticated critters do when their owners are at work is one of the summer’s biggest smashes, having earned $203.2 million stateside. It will likely inspire a new family film franchise, and is simply the latest in a long line of hits featuring talking animals. 

The weekend’s other wide release debut, Broad Green’s “The Infiltrator,” debuted Wednesday across 1,601 theaters, taking in a tepid $6.7 million in its first five days of release. The look at a federal agent’s (Bryan Cranston) attempts to infiltrate drug lord Pablo Escobar’s inner circle scored with critics. The hope is that it will continue to draw adult audiences unmoved by the onslaught of superheroes and sequels. Broad Green declined to comment on the film’s results.

In third place, Warner Bros.’ “The Legend of Tarzan” swung to $11.1 million, pushing its domestic total to $103.1 million.

Disney’s “Finding Dory” continued to shatter records, bypassing “Shrek 2’s” $441.2 million haul to become the highest-grossing animated release on a domestic basis. The “Finding Nemo” sequel took fourth place with $11 million. Its stateside gross stands at $445.5 million.

Rounding out the top five, Fox’s “Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates” picked up $7.5 million, bringing the raunchy comedy’s domestic receipts to $31.3 million.

Just in time for the Republican National Convention, conservative director Dinesh D’Souza has struck a chord with far right audiences yet again, releasing “Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party” to a $77,500 opening from just three theaters.

In limited release, Amazon Studios scored with “Cafe Society,” Woody Allen’s nostalgic look at 1930’s Hollywood. The comedy, which stars Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg, opened to $355,000 from five locations. That translates to a $71,000 per-screen average, the highest of the year.

Correction: An earlier version of this article mistakenly stated “The Infiltrator’s” three-day gross as its five-day results. 

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I have no dog in this sexism argument, purely as a no-name movie reviewer myself a $50 million dollar opening is nothing to praise, that just means next weekend will do less. This movie is a flop, you don’t have to prop it up like that Variety, I know we are all for women’s rights and stuff, but a flop is a flop. If the budget had only been closer to $100 million then it would’ve been a marginal success.

“Our movie cost $150M to make, plus $100M+ in marketing. It made $46M opening weekend and will never get out of the red. We will likely lose $100M on this film, this is a huge win for us – we are incredibly proud. More Ghostbusters films on the way!”

nice spin – there will not be a sequel with this same cast and crew

Are you kidding? 46million dollars is considered solid? Stop patronizing the feminazis and start calling a spade a spade. This movie is a flop. Feminism is a flop.

GO SEE HELLARY COMING OUT AND SEE WHAT THE REAL STORY BEHIND THIS LYING

CORRUPT ANTI AMERICAN PIECE OF CRAP REALLY IS BEFORE YOU OBOMBA LIBERAL

LEFT WING DOPES VOTE FOR HER AND COMPLETELY DESTROY THIS COUNTRY.

Apparently, if you don’t want to watch another reboot from Hollywood, you are a misogynist. How is 46 million respectable? World of Warcraft almost made that amount opening day weekend. Stop trying to push agendas on people. With dismal numbers like this and an uninterested audience World Wide, all this liberal nonsense will stop when the money stops.

I think I would scratch my eyes out first before I ever watch Ghostbusters 2016

Yeah, pretty sure Deadpool made a lot more money earlier this year.

Deadpool made more than that on opening day!

Beyond this weekend when the feminist and those morbidly interested see it, its going to crash and burn. I would expect at least a 60% drop next weekend, if not 70%.

Why is Variety promoting this movie? It came in second and if it had been the blockbuster it’s being portrayed here as, then it would have made $100 Million the first week. Sorry, but the fact that Variety is a cheerleader for this mess is intriguing. Sony must have some blackmail material on you suckers.

I have to say, the sexism war that Sony, Feig, and the media started was so much more entertaining than the movie possibly could be. I’ve also enjoyed that today, about 80% of the articles I’ve read today do not contain “sexist” or “misogyny”. They must have figured out their scheme to use hate to promote a movie won’t work so they dropped it. Either that, or now that the box office numbers are in their trying to quietly pretend it never happened so all the ghostbusters fans won’t laugh in their faces. Variety looks to be one of the last… But their devotion to this failed ploy is compelling.

Sounds like enough to justify a sequel and the continuing expansion of the brand.

political positioning doesn’t make a film entertaining or not. the idea of a reboot of this is horrendous to me, no matter who you’re casting.

So–That’s over with. Now, on to that “Jumanji” remake you were hoping to tie it in with, Sony….

Glad to see an original IP is doing well. I doubt Hollywood will get the message.

How is it the highest grossing live-action comedy in a year when it made 80mil less in OW than Deadpool which came out in February?

I did hope for more/higher but I am pleasantly surprised at the weekend take when considering the negativity and backlashed they faced from day one. It definitely needs solid legs and oversea strength – its not just the franchise that would be set to lose out, but female-led pictures too.

The film was nothing short of fun and enjoyable – something heavily lacking from the majority of summer blockbuster releases this season.

Given the massive negativity and the campaign by some to badmouth the film, even though they hadn’t seen it, so as to “kill it”, the size of the opening is actually a good one. That most people actually liked the film may help it.

The director and main stars tend to have films with legs. an average around 4 x opening weekend. So the film has a shot in America and possibly more so overseas whee hey may have slightly less of a concern with this organised campaign against the film.

It’s out now, not everyone will like it, but the consensus is it is a decent film, so why are people still so obsessed with it not just getting a fair shot?

Legs? You do realize Star Trek and Ice Age are opening next weekend and that Suicide Squad comes after that?

Remember when the producers of “Battlefield: Earth” tried to shout down all the negative press that the movie was going to be “an L. Ron fund-raiser”, and acted like condescending jackasses trying to tell us we’d like the movie anyway because it had spaceships and explosions in it? (“It’s a popcorn movie!”)

Now, realistically, it wasn’t THE worst movie ever made–more like low-rent SyFy Channel–but by the time the audience struck back, the legend was born.

Moral: Do not pick fights with the audience and don’t try to start a “war” with them in your wounded-pride defense. They will fight back and you have no hope of winning. None.

To the audience of, quote, “sexist haters”, unquote, it was not enough that Pets must win, it was that Feig & McCarthy must -lose-.

Legs may be muted by brand name. The film has a lower preview to weekend multiple than previous Feig comedies, less than half than that of The Heat.

Paul Feig’s “Ghostbusters” is pretty much equal to Paul Feig writting up a pseudo-fanfiction of the franchise…

“Psuedo” because its pretty obvious that Feig isnt even a fan to begin with.

I’m just thrilled that they are going to make sequels (LOL). More flops coming soon! Honestly, I can hardly wait to not go see the next one. OMG!LOL!!!!

Sure, to some it was an opportunity to go off on misogynistic rants, others a desecration of a beloved classic. But have you considered a third option: that the movie simply isn’t very well written or shot. The fact that it made no effort to pass the torch is just another by-product of the lazy production associated with the movie.

Any other big franchise movie debuting at second, and we’d be talking about how much of a massive flop it was. Its all spin and trying to save face. Ghostbusters is a failure.

people are desperate for this movie flop. star trek and Jason Bourne are two rubbish

46 mill, but second place to an original IP. Let’s not forget next weekend we have Jason Bourne and Star Trek. Current Year GB might be in the top five next weekend, but will fall to the dramatic drop most other summer movies experienced.

Position/ranking is completely irrelevant. It is down to the final gross – domestic, foreign and worldwide – to decide whether it is a success or not, not simply the competition it faced on opening weekend.

At approx 11.5k per screen, not stellar by any definition. Will it have legs to carry it? Find out next Sunday!

With Star Trek Beyond being released next week, this movie is not dead in the water.