The real problem is that it’s not just Ghostbusters and it’s not just Sony.
Here are some of the big budget flops we’ve seen come and go this year:
[ul]
[li]Gods of Egypt[/li][li]Allegiant[/li][li]The Huntsman: Winter’s War[/li][li]Alice Through the Looking Glass[/li][li]Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows[/li][li]The Legend of Tarzan[/li][li]The BFG[/li][/ul]
For every $100m+ movie being released this year that seems to be breaking even of returning a profit (if underperforming, like BvS) there’s another one losing money. It’s like the excess of Hollywood franchises and over-the-top spectacle that is being churned out almost every weekend is causing the market to implode.
Ghostbusters is just an obvious example of an unsustainable model. Something has to give.
It’s an “obvious” example in the sense that people who wanted this movie to fail have been making a big deal about it. The BFG (also still in theaters) doesn’t seem to be producing a similar reaction even though it’s been doing much worse than Ghostbusters on a comparable budget.
That said, while I enjoyed Ghostbusters, if Hollywood’s habit of making big budget remakes/sequels for every damn thing that anyone’s ever heard of proves not to be a reliable moneymaking strategy after all then that’s fine with me. They’ve made their bed and they can lie in it.
Because Ghostbusters ticked all the boxes for “cynical cashgrab”, unlike The BFG. That’s setting aside any gender politics. It was a remake nobody asked for. The BFG, OTOH, was a well-made adaptation of a children’s classic by the team who made E.T.
If you’re going to remake a movie that was a massive success in its day, you need to make sure it’ll actually be even better. “Same, but with a casting twist” just won’t cut it.
If they remade Back to the Future tomorrow I’d expect people to be happy about its failure, too.
They actually did remake Back to the Future tomorrow. Production wrapped in October and post-production was completed in January 2017 for a July 2017 release. It was one of the worst box office bombs in movie history. Rico Rodriguez played Marty and Lucy Liu played Doc Brown.
Luckily, I used my time machine to come back to today, the day before they are to start work on the film. I plan to seduce Lucy Liu and get her pregnant so that the production will be called off.
NOTE: Lucy Liu is actually the same age as Christopher Lloyd was when he played Doc Brown.
Does that blow your mind, or what?
Has any remake ever been “asked for” by anyone but Hollywood itself? Like I said, they’ve made their bed.
As for gender politics, well, a glance at the comments on anything related to the new Ghostbusters should make it clear why this movie enraged the basement-dwelling trolls of the world, and it’s not because they’re opposed to cynical cash grabs.
I’ll add here that, as loathsome as they are, the basement-dwelling trolls of the world have probably done Ghostbusters a huge favor. They’ve helped generate plenty of free publicity for the movie, made a lot of people who aren’t misogynist scum feel more invested in Ghostbusters than the typical Hollywood cynical cash grab, and will be a convenient scapegoat if the movie fails to turn a profit.
In reality, I think if this movie doesn’t break even it will be because Hollywood gave a Paul Feig action-comedy a bigger budget than his last three movies COMBINED. I’m not a Hollywood insider or anything, but that seems like a big gamble to me.
The thing is, the MRA stuff is just noise that is confusing the issue. If the marketing and word-of-mouth were strong, that other stuff can be instantly countered.
Misogynists and racists tried to derail The Force Awakens, but their mewling got no traction, because the film delivered. (The same thing happened with Fury Road, too.) Feig and McCarthy made the mistake of giving these idiots oxygen, and all that does is signal that it’s a legitimate conversation. You just shouldn’t feed trolls. It somehow became a referendum on feminism, when IMHO it’s more powerful to let the film speak for itself.
But you’re right, banking on Feig to deliver huge numbers was the biggest mistake. He makes decent small comedies that get little traction overseas–not a recipe for success.
I enjoyed it, especially the physical comedy, which I liked better than the first movie. When Melissa McCarthy was riding that out of control anti-ghost weapon, that was hilarious, IMO.
In a moral sense then ignoring the trolls might have been the better thing to do, but as far as promoting a big budget Hollywood movie I don’t think it was a mistake at all to take the free publicity. Ghostbusters got a lot more press than it would have if the trolls had decided to just quietly stay away in droves, and it can’t have hurt the movie that it became a bigger story than just “Ho hum, another remake.”
It was a distraction that diffused the marketing message. Contrary to the popular saying, not all publicity is good publicity, especially if you’re moving away from your core message. Most people don’t see a movie like this to support feminism, they go to be entertained for two hours, regardless of the gender of the stars. There was a needless digression towards emphasising the gender politics, which takes focus away from selling the entertainment value.
I’ll just add that the casting wasn’t even that subversive, given that the original was never a film filled with machismo in the first place. So the feminism angle wasn’t even really on point, and wasn’t worth discussing.
Remake Predator with McCarthy et al and it’s a different matter. (And that actually sounds pretty interesting.)
I’m not sure you’re understanding me. That sort of noise is easy to tune out unless the filmmakers actually broadcast it by engaging with it. At that point it becomes part of the marketing, and effectively politicises what should otherwise be just a fun film. Audiences resent being preached to by otherwise inoffensive blockbusters.
…it isn’t just fricken noise: and it wasn’t only trolls that attacked Ghostbusters. These are real life bullies: and you don’t get bullies to back down by letting them win.
The people that went after Ghostbusters were not the same people who went after The Force Awakens and Fury. The “Ghostbusters haters” are indistinguishable from the gamergate mob: using the same tactics as they did when going after “SJW’s in the gaming industry.” This same group did not go after Star Wars or Fury: hence were not subjected to the same level of harassment and abuse. Don’t confuse the two.
Leslie Jones was personally targeted for harassment on Twitter because of her role in Ghostbusters. That’s the “sort of noise” trolls were spewing at this movie and the people involved in it, and I don’t think it’s fair to say they should have just shut up and taken it lest they politicize a fun summer movie.
I also don’t think it’s fair to portray this as the filmmakers choosing to feed the trolls when this was something covered in the media. I’d agree that it would be better for the press to give less attention to trolls, but it’s still the trolls who are responsible for their own trolling.
…and tell me it’s not the same gamergate douchebags. Bullies lose by their cries being drowned out by an alternative message that gains traction, not by legitimising their talking points.
As for Leslie Jones, an artist for Steven Universe just quit Twitter after being harassed by 'shippers. Twitter is a cesspool at the best of times. That’s not to excuse it, but the point is that nutcases and arseholes are everywhere when it comes to anything with a sizeable fanbase. Ghostbusters is not unique. What is unique was how the filmmakers chose to respond, and the result means that these arseholes will be even more emboldened now.