Ghostbusters $40 Million Overbudget

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Last summer, about this time, we were a month away from the release of “Ghostbusters,” and there was no shortage of controversy. A select but vocal group of nerds remained positively aghast that women would dare lead the reboot and wear proton packs, while those without misogynistic views, were nonetheless wary of the film, as the trailers didn’t do such a hot job selling the picture. Director Paul Feig and co. put their on their game faces and pushed forward, and the team behind the original film lent their support too, however, it now looks like the gloves have come off.

Dan Aykroyd sat down with Britain’s “Sunday Brunch” over the weekend, and whatever they put in his tea, sparked from the “Ghostbusters” co-creator a very candid assessment of Feig’s work on the reboot. Frankly, he was not pleased.

“[‘Ghostbusters’] made a lot of money around the world but just cost too much, making it economically not feasible to do another one. So that’s too bad. The director, he spent too much on it. He didn’t shoot scenes we suggested to him and several scenes that were going to be needed and he said, ‘Nah, we don’t need them.’ Then we tested the movie and they needed them and he had to go back. About $30 to $40-million in reshoots. So he will not be back on the Sony lot any time soon,” he said (via io9).

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Aykroyd is perhaps being a bit generous when he says “Ghostbusters” made a lot of money — it earned $229 million worldwide. That’s not such a great figure for a movie that cost $144 million, before marketing. However, his point about the budget does make sense — it does seem a bit bigger than a movie of that kind really needs to be.

Feig and Sony have yet to respond, but it’s some pretty heavy stuff levelled by Aykroyd, and with no real “Ghostbusters” news kicking around at the moment other than possible movies in development, including an animated effort, perhaps there’s some truth to it.