Summary

• Dan Aykroyd no longer resents the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot and its the high budget was his fault.
• He now fully s the movie and praises the all-female cast led by Melissa McCarthy.
• Aykroyd believes the film worked well and is proud to have been a part of it.

Ghostbusters star Dan Aykroyd no longer resents the female-led Ghostbusters movie earned $229.1 million at the box office, a weak showing compared to the $144 million budget. Aykroyd itted that he enjoyed the movie, but believed the cost was too immense.

Eight years after Ghostbusters' release, Aykroyd has changed his mind and believes any issues were his own doing. In an interview with People, Aykroyd revealed that the high budget was his responsibility as a producer, and he should have stepped in to help maintain the budget. He is now "proud" to have taken part and is "fully ive" of the attempted reboot. Check out his full quote below:

I liked the movie [director] Paul Feig made with those spectacular women. I was mad at them at the time because I was supposed to be a producer on there and I didn't do my job and I didn't argue about costs. And it cost perhaps more than it should, and they all do. All these movies do. I thought that the villain at the end was great. I loved so much of it. And of course, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones and Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig, you're never going to do better than that. So I go on the record as saying I'm so proud to have been able to license that movie and have a hand and have a part in it, and I'm fully ive of it, and I don't besmirch it at all. I think it works really great amongst all the ones that have been made.

Did The 2016 Ghostbusters Fail Because Of The Budget?

Sexism Played A Role In The Disappointing Box Office

The high budget was a massive problem for the reboot, as its $144 million budget made profitability a challenge. It would have needed approximately $350 million to reach a solid profit after the theaters took their cut, and nothing in Ghostbusters' franchise history has come close to that immense total. The original was the closest with its $297 million total. Later movies have achieved profit by lowering the budget, as Ghostbusters: Afterlife did when it managed a $75 million budget with a $204 million take. While Afterlife earned less than the 2016 Ghostbusters, the lower budget made it profitable.

There was also an extreme sexist backlash to the film that left cast in tears and reportedly receiving death threats. The movie suffered severe review-bombing before its release, leaving it with a 74% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes and a dismal 49% audience score. It marks the lowest audience score in franchise history, despite having a relatively high Tomatometer. Check out the chart below, which compares the scores for every major Ghostbusters movie:

With so much backlash, it was difficult for Ghostbusters to ever gain much box office momentum. Its $46 million opening weekend was worrying for a movie with such a large budget, and the 64% drop in its sophomore weekend meant that it would never recover. An unreasonably high cost and extreme sexist backlash to an all-women cast meant that success was never much of a possibility. Even without the review-bombing, Aykroyd is right that Ghostbusters had too high of a budget to ever achieve a profit.

Source: People