Based entirely on the backlash, you’d have thought 2016’s Ghostbusters had committed some kind of war crime looking at just how overwhelming the bile and vitriol was. Paul Feig’s reboot was essentially doomed from the beginning, because it’s hard to make a success out of something that’s spent its entire existence being denigrated and run into the ground.
Even though it did score decent enough reviews from critics who put their fingers in their ears and tried to enjoy it as a standalone sci-fi blockbuster immune from the outside noise, an underwhelming box office run saw the do-over lose an estimated $70 million when all was said and done, with Sony almost instantly sweeping it under the rug and announcing Jason Reitman’s legacy sequel Afterlife soon after.
The campaign against Feig’s Ghostbusters was so all-encompassing that it even set an unwanted new record as the single most-disliked movie trailer in the history of YouTube, but that was nothing compared to the abuse star Leslie Jones suffered through.
In an excerpt from her upcoming memoir published in Rolling Stone, the actress and comedian even railed against Reitman after he made a point of noting on social media that his Ghostbusters would be “giving it back to the fans,” in what was interpreted as a clear shot at the female-driven feature.
“When I started doing this movie, this is when I really started seeing not only racism, but classism. Even the director of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Jason Reitman — who is the son of the original director, Ivan—said something unforgivable when discussing his new version that came out in 2021. On Bill Burr’s podcast he said this about our version of Ghostbusters: “We are, in every way, trying to go back to the original technique and hand the movie back to the fans.” He did try to walk it back, but the damage was done. Bringing up the idea of giving the movie “back to the fans” was a pretty clear shout-out to all those losers who went after us for making an all-female film.”
It was an unfortunate experience for all involved that they never should have been forced to put up with in the first place, but it doesn’t help matters when even the cast’s peers – especially one who grew up steeped in Ghostbusters – ended up pouring more fuel onto the flames.