After months of speculation and a plethora of controversy, Ghostbusters was finally released. With a gross of $46 million, Paul Feig’s reboot was neither a bomb nor a box office smash. Its ultimate financial future may rest in the hands of the worldwide market. Costing roughly $144 million and with additional advertising costs taken into consideration, Sony should be trepidacious. After all, its planned release in China has yet to be made official due to regulations about films depicting the supernatural. Josh Greenstein, president of marketing and distribution for Sony, stated that “we’ll see if we get accepted or not.”
What is interesting to note about Ghostbusters is how it compares to other McCarthy collaborations. Ghostbusters raked in the highest gross for an opening weekend, besting previous champion The Heat. The precedent for success is certainly there which could possibly explain the decision to greenlight a sequel. Despite the very vocal detractors, the film fared well with critics and general audiences. It scored a 73% on aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and a B plus among audiences on Cinemascore. With big releases such as Star Trek Beyond and Suicide Squad coming up soon, Ghostbusters could be facing an uphill battle for profit.
The Secret Life of Pets once again remained the box office champion with a total weekend gross of $50 million. Although it experienced a 51% drop in its total gross, Pets passed Disney’s Tangled with a total domestic run thus far with $203 million. This weekend marks the fifth consecutive weekend in which an animated film emerged at number one. Speaking of which, Finding Dory was officially crowned as the highest-grossing domestic animated release. Other films that crossed significant milestones were The Legend of Tarzan and The Conjuring 2, both of which broke the $100 million mark. Tarzan once again clung to a spot in the top five, earning the fifth spot.
Aside from Ghostbusters, the other wide release from last week was The Infiltrator starring Brian Cranston. Even with an additional few days (it opened on last Wednesday), it only grossed an estimated total of $6.7 million. Made on a budget of roughly $47.5 million, there’s a strong possibility it won’t recuperate its budget here in the states.
In addition to Star Trek Beyond, this upcoming weekend also includes wide releases Lights Out and Ice Age: Collision Course. Will Pets continue the streak of animation domination into a sixth consecutive week? Not if the crew of the Starship Enterprise has anything to say about it.
