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Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, the fifth installment of the Ghostbusters franchise, was released on March 22, 2024, and unexpectedly topped the charts over the weekend. The movie did a business of $45.2 million in its opening weekend, as per Rotten Tomatoes.
The movie followed up after the fourth title, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and is set two years after the latter, following its success in 2021. Sony had announced the fifth movie as a sequel in 2022. Co-written and co-produced by Jason Reitman, the film is dedicated to Ivan Reitman, the creator of the franchise and maker of the first Ghostbusters movie.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire has an interesting ensemble cast that includes Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Mckenna Grace, Celeste O’Connor, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Annie Potts, and Ernie Hudson among others. Based on Ghostbusters written by Dan Aykroyd along with Harold Ramis, the movie is directed by Gil Kenan and distributed by Sony Pictures.
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Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire soars ahead at the box office
In a surprising turn of events, Sony has had a chart-topper after a long time with the sales of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire during its opening weekend. The movie which arrived in 4345 theatres in the US on March 22, 2024, did approximate sales worth $45.2 million by Sunday, March 24. It followed the same pattern as its 2021 predecessor, Ghostbusters: Afterlife.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire continued with the return of the cast of Afterlife after the latter rebooted the franchise presenting the descendants of the previous characters. As analyst David A Gross projects, the sales of the currently running movie are more than the average expected for the genre.
The budget for the movie was $100 million and it needs a few weeks of consistent run to achieve profitability. With a CinemaScore of B+, whether it reaches the target remains to be seen.
What made Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire succeed?
A few things worked in favor of the movie which made it an opening chart-topper and may make it a profitable movie for the franchise in the near future. One of the criteria was its medium budget. At $100 million, it is more than Afterlife’s $75 million but less than the 2016 Ghostbusters’ $144 million.
Moreover, the movie was not hit by critics affecting its initial bookings. The original cast returned in supporting roles making it a part of the first movie of the franchise, an important move after the failure of the female cast of the 2016 Ghostbusters movie.
Director Gil Kenan, of Monster House fame, knows his younger audience, and the PG-13 Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire has been made as a kid-friendly horror. Bringing the story back to New York was a smart move for the writers, as was reducing the romance between Gary and Callie.
On the spooky side, while Slimer and the library ghost bring in nostalgia, there are both human and novel monster villains in the story. While the original cast also brings back nostalgia, they are side characters with more action to perform. New additions to the cast such as Emily Alyn Lind, Patton Oswalt, Kumail Nanjiani, and comedian James Acaster have promising roles to play.
How did Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire rank against other movies for the weekend?
As mentioned before, despite garnering a B+ score, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire did an unexpected business over its opening weekend. In the two days from March 22 to March 24, 2024, the movie had a domestic sale of $45.2 million and $16.4 million in the international market.
The second place in the charts went to Dune: Part Two with $17.6 million, which is in its fourth weekend after its release. The top ten titles on the box office charts and their sales figures are mentioned below:
What is Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire about?
The latest Ghostbusters movie is about joint forces from the past with the present. The plot covers new and old ghosts as well as new and old ghost-busters. As per the story, the original Ghostbusters have developed a secret research lab in the New York City firehouse. They aim to take ghostbusting to a higher level.
The Spengler family, the new ghost-busters from Afterlife, come to New York to join the original team. However, a newly discovered artifact unleashes a malevolent force that threatens another Ice Age on Earth. The two teams of ghost-busters must team up to fight the new evil spirit while keeping a human villain, who wants to quash the ghost-busters, at bay.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is currently running in theatres in the US and select theatres internationally.
