MOVIE NEWS – Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire dominated the American box office and exceeded expectations, marking an important milestone in the history of the entire series.

The latest instalment in Sony’s supernatural comedy series grossed $45.2 million in its debut in 4,345 North American theatres. It became the weekend’s biggest success overseas. Yet on Saturday, it seemed that Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire would end with $42 million. But estimates were revised upwards after a bigger-than-expected Sunday. The film opened at the international box office with a sluggish $16.4 million from 25 markets. That’s a total of $61 million worldwide.

Still, those U.S. ticket sales are barely ahead of its 2021 predecessor, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, which had a $44 million start while the pandemic’s aftermath significantly dented its popularity.

It’s a sign that the 30-year-old franchise hasn’t expanded its constituency beyond the ghostbuster’s original (and ageing) core fans.

In addition, The Trembling Empire has a bigger budget than the previous one. It cost $100 million to produce and many millions to distribute. It will have to surpass Afterlife far ($204m globally against a $75m budget) to justify its price tag. (After all, theatre operators get to keep roughly 50% of the proceeds.) Sony expects the film to benefit from spring break. However, the new Ghostbusters will face intense competition next weekend in the form of Godzilla x Kong.

At the same time, it’s good news for the franchise that thanks to this weekend’s results, the total revenue of all the Ghostbusters movies exceeded 1 billion dollars!

Critics and audiences had mixed opinions about the sequel. Empire of Horrors has a 43% on Rotten Tomatoes and a “B+” on CinemaScore. The new film follows the events of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, itself a sequel to the 1980s sci-fi comedy classic. (The ill-fated 2016 reboot doesn’t exist in this universe. ) Franchise veterans Gil Kenan and Jason Reitman (whose father, Ivan Reitman, directed 1984’s “Ghostbusters”) wrote the new Ghostbusters. New recruits to the legendary ghost hunt (Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Mckenna Grace and Finn Wolfhard) team up with veterans (Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson and Annie Potts) to stop an apocalyptic deity from bringing about a second ice age…

Source: Deadline