Ghostbusters' opening weekend wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. As such, the future of this potential new franchise would seem to be up in the air. However, one exec at Sony is fairly certain what's going to happen next. According to Rory Bruer, President of Worldwide Distribution at Sony, the Ghostbusters franchise isn't going anywhere, and the next movie is coming. It's really only a question of when.
While the new Ghostbusters was able to bring in about $46 million during its first weekend in domestic theaters, the movie cost an expensive $144 million to make, meaning that the movie still has a lot of ground to cover before it can be considered a box office success. Having said that, Rory Bruer has told The Wrap that he is confident that there will be another Ghostbusters movie. Said the executive,
The Ghostbusters world is alive and well. I expect Ghostbusters to become an important brand and franchise... While nothing has been officially announced yet, there's no doubt in my mind it will happen.
To be clear, at no point in Rory Bruer's statement does he specifically mention Paul Feig, or anybody involved in this specific Ghostbusters movie. Instead, he seems to be talking about Ghostbusters in a more general sense. So, apparently, we can be confident that there will be more Ghostbusters movies, although whether they will be direct sequels to the current film or part of a Cinematic Universe build attempt is less obvious. Still, making another film in this new franchise seems like a strong possibility. Even if the new Ghostbusters isn't seen to be as successful as the studio would like, simply rebooting it again doesn't seem like a strategy that's going to pay off in the long run. There's no guarantee another bite at the apple is going to be any more successful than this one.
It's certainly clear that Sony has plans to do a lot more with the Ghostbusters brand. If you've seen the film, one thing you may have noticed in the opening credits was the logo for Ghost Corps, a new subsidiary of Sony that's being headed by the director of the original Ghostbusters, Ivan Reitman, and Dan Aykroyd. You don't go to the trouble of creating an entirely new production team like that if you're only planning to make one movie, or even possibly just one series of movies. There are certainly elements to suggest that long-term plans are being established to make a lot more Ghostbusters stuff in the coming years.
Still, the groundwork had been laid, so of all the possible scenarios for a Ghostbusters follow-up, a direct sequel is still the most likely. This possibility will be great news for those who did love the new movie. This may even be a bit of good news for those who decided to hate the new Ghostbusters without even seeing it. While their childhood may have been irreparably damaged this weekend, it's hard to imagine anyone will accuse a new Ghostbusters 2 of doing the same thing about the original sequel.
