[Davideverona]

Black screen.

WINSTON VOICE: "I'd like you to take a look... I'm a little worried"

- ECU red light flashing

RAY VOICE: "Yes, I.. I... I may fix it... I think. Maybe."

- Door's opening with a creaking sound. We see the Firehouse basement and the run down ECU. Ray and Winston approach the containment unit.

RAY: "it's crowded. Egon and I... We were studying a way to empty it before he... Before he flied to Summerville to stop Gozer. I'll need some help"

MUSIC - LOGO.

[ecto88mph]

Heres a question that might not be as obvious an answer as you think.

Who fixed ecto in the scene where you see the wire repairing itself?

The obvious answer is Egon, but remember in some of the deleted scenes of 84 the car is shown to follow a cop around with one of its sniffers and ignite a parking ticket. So did Egon fix Ecto...or did Ecto fix Ecto? I think the answers probably Egon but might not be so clear cut as it repairs right after Trevor calls the car darling.

I would say 100% egon. The whole possessed/sentient ecto was cut and is not canon.

[Timo]

The new box office total is $184.693 million ($123.393 million domestic and $61.3 million overseas).
https://ghostbustersnews.com/2022/01/02 ... ox-office/

Yeah I took a look at where GB16 opened and what it did compared to where GBA opened and what it’s done and I think I’ll amend that 190 estimate. I didn’t realize the film hasn’t opened in Brazil and a bunch of other Latin America places. It’ll go beyond 200 worldwide for sure.

It’s interesting to see that GBA and GB16 are on pretty much the exact same box office track. After 40ish days they are pretty much neck & neck. Same with the available international numbers. After it was done in theatres the total in the UK for GB16 was 14 million. The total for GBA as of now is just below that at 13. Mexico did 6 million for GB16 and did 6 million for GBA.

Still it makes me wonder why out of all the films out this week…why was GBA the only one that increased its week to week total. Hmm

I know there were voices blaming the pandemic, but within two weeks or so, Spider-Man managed to reach the top of Sony's most successful film of all time, prooving audiences are there when there's interest. I guess the numbers of both ATC and GBA just represent the (important) basic audience's interest in Ghostbusters branded movies and it doesn't matter if 3000 people on the internet are bashing it for being too different (ATC) or 3000 people on the internet are in love with it for repeating what came before (GBA). These are just online bubble impressions.
I wonder what the consequences are for future sequels. Yes, GBA was cheaper but also, Sony must have expected wayyy more income since this one was a regular sequel and online voices suggested ATC not being a sequel was their biggest problem.
What could falsify the comparison is that Sony prematurely removed the film from over 3,000 cinemas and pushed for an exaggeratedly early VOD start while the movie hasn't even started in certain international markets where basic people now can decide whether to support Ghostbusters or watch a pirated copy.

[mrmichaelt]

I'm sure everyone has it on digital but for just to note, Vudu posted the first 5 minutes online.

Heres a question that might not be as obvious an answer as you think.

Who fixed ecto in the scene where you see the wire repairing itself?

The obvious answer is Egon, but remember in some of the deleted scenes of 84 the car is shown to follow a cop around with one of its sniffers and ignite a parking ticket. So did Egon fix Ecto...or did Ecto fix Ecto? I think the answers probably Egon but might not be so clear cut as it repairs right after Trevor calls the car darling.

Nah, it was Egon. Basically, he's there in his invisible form - he connected the wire and shut the hood down.

Some mechanics refer to their cars as women.

[Sav C]

I know there were voices blaming the pandemic, but within two weeks or so, Spider-Man managed to reach the top of Sony's most successful film of all time, prooving audiences are there when there's interest. I guess the numbers of both ATC and GBA just represent the (important) basic audience's interest in Ghostbusters branded movies and it doesn't matter if 3000 people on the internet are bashing it for being too different (ATC) or 3000 people on the internet are in love with it for repeating what came before (GBA). These are just online bubble impressions.
I wonder what the consequences are for future sequels. Yes, GBA was cheaper but also, Sony must have expected wayyy more income since this one was a regular sequel and online voices suggested ATC not being a sequel was their biggest problem.
What could falsify the comparison is that Sony prematurely removed the film from over 3,000 cinemas and pushed for an exaggeratedly early VOD start while the movie hasn't even started in certain international markets where basic people now can decide whether to support Ghostbusters or watch a pirated copy.

You make some very good points. I do think that Spider Man had an unusually wide audience due

to them bringing back Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. I mean, Spider Man was able to gross over $800 billion twenty years ago! And considering the reception to the Andrew Garfield Spider Man movies was fairly lackluster, they were still able to gross over $700 billion. They fused one extremely successful canon with another extremely successful canon, as well as a canon that did quite respectfully (although it is overshadowed by the other two). Not to mention, Marvel movies have been all the rage for over a decade now.

This Post Contains Spoilers

Afterlife was great, but just due to the passing of time itself, the OGs don't hold as much draw as they used to, and the new characters were untested. I think it hurt the movie's returns not to feature the OGs more prominently in the advertising. I've noticed more pics of the return of the OGs circulating on social media as of late--perhaps people are realizing their involvement and that has caused the uptick in Afterlife's box office? Doubtful, but I'm just throwing that out there.

One thing that should be noted, not that I think it makes sense to compare GBA and ATC, but GBA seems to have had a lot less talk surrounding it. The ATC trailer got 47 million views, but GBA only got 22 million. So I think it's safe to say that Afterlife did better at converting "trailer viewers" into "moviegoers," even though their total gross is fairly similar.

I think covid dampened Afterlife's numbers considerably. I also think that Afterlife brought less to the table than Spider Man did, especially for younger audiences (who are probably less likely to be deterred by covid). We're trying to compare Ghostbusters 3ish to Spider Man 4ish, without taking into account that Spider Man 4ish has been nestled inside an even more (monetarily) successful Spider Man canon, while a lot of Afterlife had to be created from scratch.

[*NormalGamer*]

I'm sure everyone has it on digital but for just to note, Vudu posted the first 5 minutes online.

Heres a question that might not be as obvious an answer as you think.

Who fixed ecto in the scene where you see the wire repairing itself?

The obvious answer is Egon, but remember in some of the deleted scenes of 84 the car is shown to follow a cop around with one of its sniffers and ignite a parking ticket. So did Egon fix Ecto...or did Ecto fix Ecto? I think the answers probably Egon but might not be so clear cut as it repairs right after Trevor calls the car darling.

Nah, it was Egon. Basically, he's there in his invisible form - he connected the wire and shut the hood down.

Some mechanics refer to their cars as women.

@ *referring to bold*

Heh. Reminds me of Stephen King's Christine (1983); great horror novel and horror movie. ^_^

[RichardLess]

Jesus Christ. Has anyone else read that Scott Mendelssohn piece on Forbes about how foreign audiences don’t care about Ghostbusters?

What a hatchet job. This is someone with an agenda and I hate saying that. His bias is clear in an article that should be dealing in facts and context, Once again he brings up Ghostbusters 2016 and all the drama that surrounded it. Why? Why was that relevant? This guy has some kind of hard on for hating on this franchise. He acts like it’s expected that Ghostbusters would make most of its money overseas.

Fails to mention the film has yet to open everywhere. And gives a 15% increase for the “COVID curve”? +15%?!? What a joke. How did he come up with that number? The truth is we have no idea what this movie would’ve done box office wise. Some say 50% some say 30. We just don’t know.

The headline is clickbait bullshit. COMEDIES DONT TRAVEL. It’s not Ghostbusters, it’s comedy in general.

Plus, you’ll note that he didn’t include the piece of positive Ghostbusters box office news which is it was the ONLY movie in the top ten to make more money this weekend than last.

Ah well.

[timeware]

This is someone with an agenda and I hate saying that. His bias is clear in an article that should be dealing in facts and context, Once again he brings up Ghostbusters 2016 and all the drama that surrounded it. Why? Why was that relevant? This guy has some kind of hard on for hating on this franchise.

This is how negative Afterlife reviews mosty go now. Critics on you tube have now admitted that they liked Afterlife but gave it a poor review because it wasn't "their sequel." They want to mention the drama to get people riled up in their comments sections. They know it's a touchy subject, and it still proves true on these forums.

But I can gurantee you if you looked at the html code on a lot of these click bait article's you'll find the majority piggy back from other websites changing the headline ever so slightly. I doubt Scott Mendelssohn wrote that article on his own but I'm betting he still got paid.

[Sav C]

But I can gurantee you if you looked at the html code on a lot of these click bait article's you'll find the majority piggy back from other websites changing the headline ever so slightly. I doubt Scott Mendelssohn wrote that article on his own but I'm betting he still got paid.

Don't get me started on JavaScript...

[RichardLess]

Having just rewatched the movie on digital I have some thoughts.

Ivo Shandor needed to be cut out of the movie. He played no purpose, it makes zero sense and while it was cool to see someone get ripped in half, it isn’t worth the “how is a man that’s been dead 75 years still alive? …ghost magic?”.

Also…Egon NOT getting sucked into the traps at the end is a bit weird. That might’ve been a neat sacrifice thing he makes.

Also The first time around I had a huge problem with the symmetric book stacking in Egon’s place. Why would that be there? Then I realized…duh! Egon’s ghost probably did that. He was maybe teaching himself how to move objects.

Also…the deleted scene included is a friggn joke. I loved it don’t get me wrong but…where is all the other good stuff? Perhaps an extended cut is coming? It makes no sense given all the deleted footage we have proof of.

For some reason something else really bothered me on the 2nd watch. Something that’s been talking about. It’s not a comedy at all. First time through that didn’t bother me so much because I was just excited to see it(and I was incredibly stoned on pain killers). This time tho..it was…the reboot took nothing seriously where as this one takes EVERYTHING seriously.

I think Logan Kim is going to be a star. That kid has charisma to spare and watching him this 2nd time? He’s my favourite new character. I wish we could’ve learned his real name.

So we’ve seen 2 different filmmakers in the last 5 years take a stab at this franchise in very different ways and while I think one is more successful than the other, it’s clear that the magic of those first two films are exclusive to the Ivan Reitman/Ramis/Aykroyd brain trust. Ivan Reitman really deserves so much credit for what Ghostbusters is. I was so curious to see him return to this world & if he still had the magic.

The problem with Afterlife is that all it requires is a few fixes and it’s a much better movie. We need to see Ray collecting the OGB’s and get more time with them. We need some good laughs. And we need a better ending…how do you not end with the Ecto 1 all cleaned up and the car speeding out of the GB HQ and taking that sharp corner? It was a gimmie…how could they miss that? Instead we get the kinda awkward “For Harold” and then seeing the car on the New York bridge.

[timeware]

I'm fifty/fifty on the Ecto being restored in Afterlife. I agree that was a gimme, but with the marketing focused on Wrecto, which sounds like a bad bodily function gone wrong I see why they didn't do it.

They wanted to save it for the sequel. We might not get 1 A, but we'll get Ecto back in all her former glory. Maybe we still get a Revenge of The Nerds style montage fixing up the Fire House and the car.

[fusi0n]

One thing that should be noted, not that I think it makes sense to compare GBA and ATC, but GBA seems to have had a lot less talk surrounding it. The ATC trailer got 47 million views, but GBA only got 22 million. So I think it's safe to say that Afterlife did better at converting "trailer viewers" into "moviegoers," even though their total gross is fairly similar.

I think covid dampened Afterlife's numbers considerably. I also think that Afterlife brought less to the table than Spider Man did, especially for younger audiences (who are probably less likely to be deterred by covid). We're trying to compare Ghostbusters 3ish to Spider Man 4ish, without taking into account that Spider Man 4ish has been nestled inside an even more (monetarily) successful Spider Man canon, while a lot of Afterlife had to be created from scratch.

I've seen a lot of social media comments and talkback about the movie, a lot seem to be uneducated thinking this is ANOTHER reboot, or "cash grab" of a dying franchise. They did not know it was a sequel. They thought it was another reboot with kids this time.

Also note a lot of time has passed between GB2 and ATC, than it has with ATC and GBA. Meaning, a lot more hype build up after GB2 until the next movie. Now it's only been 5 or so years since the last one, and it probably left a bad taste in their mouths.

[mrmichaelt]

Ivo Shandor needed to be cut out of the movie. He played no purpose

Agreed. And the more I think about it, J.K. Simmons could have been hardware store owner. Nothing against Tracy Letts.

Before scene with Shandor in the glass tomb, I was thinking Sheriff Domingo was going to be revealed to be the 'human villain' of the movie. Like if Lucky was fourth generation and Summerville was founded in 1928 (Art and Making of Movie confirmed this) and Shandor Mining Co. a year before, it's likely Lucky's great grandfather could have been a miner and/or cultist and that was secretly passed on to the next generation and the next. Like the bulk of the town could have been the 'human villain' for that matter. But most of the current generation knew nothing about the cult stuff yet.

Also…Egon NOT getting sucked into the traps at the end is a bit weird. That might’ve been a neat sacrifice thing he makes.

I think the implication from the cold open and end is, Gozer and the Terror Dogs had to be lured right over the Trap Field to be trapped. Egon was kinda positioned away from the field so he wasn't pulled in. It's not like the cartoon's logic of the Trap's field being able to pull in ghosts from a distance.

Also…the deleted scene included is a friggn joke. I loved it don’t get me wrong but…where is all the other good stuff? Perhaps an extended cut is coming? It makes no sense given all the deleted footage we have proof of.

Yeah, my first thought about just 1 deleted scene (looks I know beggars can't be choosers but...)

For some reason something else really bothered me on the 2nd watch. Something that’s been talking about. It’s not a comedy at all. First time through that didn’t bother me so much because I was just excited to see it(and I was incredibly stoned on pain killers). This time tho..it was…the reboot took nothing seriously where as this one takes EVERYTHING seriously.

The comedy was mostly subtle, I liked that change of pace. Idk, I found Phoebe hilarious.

The problem with Afterlife is that all it requires is a few fixes and it’s a much better movie. We need to see Ray collecting the OGB’s and get more time with them. We need some good laughs. And we need a better ending…how do you not end with the Ecto 1 all cleaned up and the car speeding out of the GB HQ and taking that sharp corner? It was a gimmie…how could they miss that? Instead we get the kinda awkward “For Harold” and then seeing the car on the New York bridge.

I liked it ended on Winston deciding to start it over again and it ended on that sense of hope, not skipping to it all being restored and shiny again. Save that for Part 4.

[jonogunn]

What was the deleted scene?

[philmorgan81]

What was the deleted scene?

It was a scene with Janine talking to Callie about Egon. Callie dumping crumbs out of the toaster from Ghostbusters 2. It also shows Janine finding the coin she gave Egon in the deleted scene from Ghostbusters 1 and putting it in her purse. It also reveals that Egon got cremated.

This Post Contains Spoilers

A bit more Annie Potts. Great scene it was nice to see it here.

[fusi0n]

Everyone notice Pete still wearing his pants down over his boots? Love these little details and consistency.

[jonogunn]

So Gozer comes back every 30-40 or whatever years to wreak havoc in someway….apparently start a volcano eruption….entice a world war..? And then goes away?

What about her is world ending? Sounds more like a annoying brat if you think about it. Even if the ghostbusters didn’t stop her in 1984 the worse she would have done was probably destroy some buildings in NY or something then leave.

What about her was ever world ending that made Egon go nuts about??

Unless 2021 is supposed to be her final appearance and that this would be the one to end it all..?

Also oddly enough on second viewing I didn’t find the OG scene as jarring as the first time. In my head canon I like to think that they have been busting ghosts and demons for so long that it’s become so routine that this isn’t anything out of the ordinary for them.

[Ecto24601]

From reddit. Sniffer and giga meter for those who missed it.

[robbritton]

Ivo Shandor needed to be cut out of the movie. He played no purpose, it makes zero sense and while it was cool to see someone get ripped in half, it isn’t worth the “how is a man that’s been dead 75 years still alive? …ghost magic?”.

I'll 100% give you that Ivo needed to be cut out, but I thought the narrative made it pretty clear he was dead, but then revived by Gozer's coming. The dead rise from the grave when she approaches.

How he's so well preserved though, I have no idea.

[Chicken, He Clucked]

What was the deleted scene?

It was a scene with Janine talking to Callie about Egon. Callie dumping crumbs out of the toaster from Ghostbusters 2. It also shows Janine finding the coin she gave Egon in the deleted scene from Ghostbusters 1 and putting it in her purse. It also reveals that Egon got cremated.

This Post Contains Spoilers

A bit more Annie Potts. Great scene it was nice to see it here.

If you buy digital can you download the actual files of the movies? If so, which retailers allows this vs an online stream via app?

Also if there is an extended version I hope literally everything we know is put back in. It all sounds like gold and the Phoebe popcorn shot is iconic.

Also Ivo is redundant but I’d keep him in purely because he’s something new to this movie which isn’t a repeat of GB1. Hope there’s more of him on the cutting room floor.

[mrmichaelt]

And well, Ivo's brief appearance and swift death kinda weakened the mystique of the character.

So Gozer comes back every 30-40 or whatever years to wreak havoc in someway….apparently start a volcano eruption….entice a world war..? And then goes away?

I think those years were when it would be most conducive for Gozer to be summoned to Earth to destroy it and 1984 and 2021 are the only known times it was summoned.

Presumably in the previous years seen, no mechanism was in operation with a sufficient amount of P.K.E. collected so there wasn't enough power to bring Gozer over. And once that year ended, Zuul and Vinz were summoned back to the other side if they were able to manifest on the physical plane at all to wait until the next foretold year.

[starang11]

And well, Ivo's brief appearance and swift death kinda weakened the mystique of the character.

It seemed to me they were going for the joke there, building him up only to have him taken out almost immediately.
But it happens so quickly, it took a second to register what I just saw. Maybe they trimmed a few frames for the rating, but I remember it not getting much of a reaction in the theater.

I remember thinking that if there was any truth to the rumor of Simmons' involvement, then surely he would be the main villain at the end. I think that probably would have been better. The way he was ultimately used, I agree with the others who said he probably should have been cut, although the part where he starts turning his head and Podcast freaks out was one of my favorite moments. It hit that sweet spot of scary and funny.

[RichardLess]

Ivo Shandor needed to be cut out of the movie. He played no purpose, it makes zero sense and while it was cool to see someone get ripped in half, it isn’t worth the “how is a man that’s been dead 75 years still alive? …ghost magic?”.

I'll 100% give you that Ivo needed to be cut out, but I thought the narrative made it pretty clear he was dead, but then revived by Gozer's coming. The dead rise from the grave when she approaches.

How he's so well preserved though, I have no idea.

So the dead can be killed by getting ripped in half? He doesn’t look like any ghost we’ve seen. There’s no aura around him, he still speaks and acts like a human. I mean…yes he’s dead in that coffin. But..he just gets up and is like “Yo what up Gozer. It’s ya boi Ivo Shandor”. I’d like a little exposition on the purpose and cause of him being there. Did the selenium help preserve the body? You’ll notice when he’s ripped in half his insides aren’t red. They are more clear/white(which could be for ratings purposes)

It kind of kills the mystique of Ivo Shandor for me. Now when they talk about him in GB1 JK Simmons will pop into my head where as before I pictured like some creepy Johnny Depp character from a Tim Burton movie. Vincent Price kind of.

Jk Simmons looked more like Colonel Saunders.


I think it would’ve been interesting to have Gozer chose a new form. Or have Gozer be the harbinger of something worse. Gozer is but one Demi god ruling below a truly god level god.

The problem with reintroducing a villain and sets from a popular movie is that it invites comparisons and there’s just nothing here this movie did better in my opinion with the Gozer temple. It looked far more interesting in the original film. Gozer looked more interesting. More evil/scary. At one point in this movie they have her(err “it”) just laying down.

The first film made it clear. The form of the destructor would come and bring about the end, and this one…there’s no nothing. Of course having the “choose the form of the destructor” might have been yet another repeated plot point to criticize, it’s part of the ritual and mythology of the character. So if you are going to bring back Gozer, go all the way. And just imagine the fun they could’ve had with the “choose the form of your destructor” this time? There’s no limit to what they could’ve done.

[Sav C]

Gozer shows up, and then starts to lie around? What’s she waiting for?

[timeware]

The one thing that kinda bugged me was we never got to see what happened if someone ate a mini puft. Would they turn evil like in evil dead, grow an evil clone, or just become a minion of the terror dogs?

[Chicken, He Clucked]

The one thing that kinda bugged me was we never got to see what happened if someone ate a mini puft. Would they turn evil like in evil dead, grow an evil clone, or just become a minion of the terror dogs?

That always bugged me in the Evil Dead movies: We never got to see Ash eat the deadites, maybe fry one up with some teriyaki sauce and a nice salad. What would happen then? Would a deadite turd eat his colon? So much foreshadowing and yet sadly Raimi leaves this unanswered. One of cinemas great mysteries.

[Scum]

I believe timeware is referring to Army of Darkness.

[timeware]

That always bugged me in the Evil Dead movies: We never got to see Ash eat the deadites, maybe fry one up with some teriyaki sauce and a nice salad. What would happen then? Would a deadite turd eat his colon? So much foreshadowing and yet sadly Raimi leaves this unanswered. One of cinemas great mysteries.
[/quote]

Nah, they wouldn't go that simple. More likely the evil-ash turds would possess the toilet and it would be an epic slapstick battle, with a lot of John,Louie and chamber pot jokes involved. I do believe that the comics do show Ash unwillingly eat a mini-Shiela but I can't remember what issue that was in.

[starang11]

The problem with reintroducing a villain and sets from a popular movie is that it invites comparisons and there’s just nothing here this movie did better in my opinion with the Gozer temple. It looked far more interesting in the original film. Gozer looked more interesting. More evil/scary.

I wonder if there was any attempt to bring Slavitza Jovan back, or at least use her likeness like they did with Ramis? Olivia Wilde ended up looking like Gozer's sister or something - I thought she did a pretty good job but there's no getting around the fact that it's just clearly not the same person.

[Corey91]

Where did you guys watch the deleted scene / get that info from?